I've heard the "but I like having brainless talks like this on my workflow" a lot too. My feeling is that those people need to take an actual break. And after their actual break, get back to doing the sort of work that requires their intellect. Don't create menial tasks and pretend it's a break

I mean people should do whatever they want, but it does seem sort of an odd hobby to make lists of things that a computer can do accurately, automatically. Do these people also like doing their taxes by hand?