I, too, refuse. And I have frightened the cat all too often screaming at Word that a one word sentence is perfectly acceptable.
Agreed. It's a tool, nothing more and it is not meant to replace anything. I've seen ads where a sentence is reduced down to the blandest of the bland by a program and touted as being "concise." You can be concise with flair, but I have not found the programs to provide that flair.
I actually tried one today. I'm still debating on whether or not it's helping my ass out as I'm not a native-speaker. I wouldn't even know if my writing felt 'organic' before that, my feedback is low anyways so here I am trying lots of things out.
I only use Grammarly for basic editing and spellcheck, but I always check the suggestions before I approve them. I read a quote that said something to the effect that the written word has rhythm and we should vary sentence length. (There was more to it than that) Anyway, I always try to think of the rhythm in my writing. Commas, for example, are used in music to tell singers when to breathe. I might add extra commas if my sentence needs more time. We had a work exercise where we had to edit a sentence to be grammatically correct. Most of the adaptations were technically correct depending on the circumstance. Programs don't know the circumstance or writing style.
Yes! I totally agree with this. I can stomach recycled plot lines to an extent because we culturally will recognize base stories like "Cinderella". But there are plenty of stories where the writers are essentially doing a "reaction" to the piece before and nothing new comes out of it, like any of the trending topics nowadays: vampires, werewolves, bears, mermaids, mafia, etc. (You get the drift)
I haven't had that happen here but I have received it elsewhere. That's why when I hear someone say "What I would do..." I tend to shut down because they're not writing it, I am. On the other hand one of my beta readers can do that because they're "what I would do" is more along the lines of: "What I would do is make that strong point even stronger."
But people trying to change your writing style? Nope. Nope. And nope. And that's a little what I feel with these programs when people rely on them too heavily.
Yes, there's a genuine lack of risks these days! For every one story I've read that has a unique premise, there are one-hundred with the same foil, the same characters going to the same high school/college.
We're no longer in an era of pushing the bar; we're in an era trying to maintain the bar so we get noticed by Algorithm Senpai.
I'm not well-versed in the novels department (neither specifically on Tapas nor in general), but I'd like to add my 2 cents from the comic perspective because I'm absolutely seeing a similar issue there too.
A huge "problem" with dialogue in particular is that a lot of people don't write how people speak, but instead either focus too much on proper grammar (causing every character to have the same bland voice) or take inspiration from things such as oddly phrased scanlations, creating a really awkward atmosphere in their work. I imagine this kind of thing can creep its way into novel narration too, and the "fault" my be found in a lot of sources.
Now I say "problem" and "fault," but in the end this is me speaking from my own perspective because personally I love writing that feels "alive" and "organic." For all I know the type of writing I dislike brings joy to plenty of people out there, and that's totally fine to me so long as there still are writers who stubbornly do their own thing. 
Well, yeah. And thanks for bringing a new perspective on this discussion!
I liken most of these stories to comfort food: the potato chips of writing. And this problem certainly extends to novels, too. Characters are more so self-inserts or based solely on their appearance, sexuality, etc. It feels like dialogue in this instance is fulfilling a program rather than trying to tell a story. But hey, if it's cozy why get out of bed? lol.
Years ago when I worked for a magazine I had to interview an actress about a film she was in. She had the script with her on the table. I'll never forget this, as she spoke to me she put her hand on the script and softly ran her hand over it. I thought, that's how I want to write, I want to write so that someone would hold my work like it was one of their most precious possessions. That's where writing from the soul comes into play. You can use a program to correct your grammar but not to the point where it takes your soul away.
That’s my answer as well. I use ProWritingAid, free version, and treat its corrections as suggestions.
Also, I disagree with all prose feeling the same. I read quite a bit of books every day through club I am in, and I see everything, from ornate prose to deeply layered one to barely understandable chop-mush.
We should all be willing to try out what tools are available to us. Then, of course, pick what we want to use and reject everything else.
This is why I go through and individually choose which things get edited. Grammarly will offer certain suggestions regarding sentence structure and unless I see one I just really like I usually choose to ignore it. Punctuation issues and sentence fragments are primarily what I use it for anyway.
Having written mostly "spoken word" work (plays, audio drama etc.) most of my writing life before starting novels the past couple of years, I'm familiar with the subject of characters sounding alike. This doesn't mean that they should all have different accents or even regional dialects. The best way to learn the difference, really, is to listen to people. I've always been fascinated how different familial groups will speak with each other.
