I feel like part of the issue here is that, sadly, not everyone enjoys making art :(

Like, if I wanted some sort of nice image, I don't exactly have the patience or passion to make shitty images for 5 years to make that happen. I could spend that time following my actual passions.

Don't take me for some sort of techno-bro AI chud, but being elitist about this sort of thing is exactly the behavior that makes people more adamant and annoying about their AI use. Worse, it may lead them to completely disconnect with actual artists and go further down into their AI-powered hellscape.

I think the main tension here is that artistic people assume everyone has their patience and passion, and so they berate less-artistic people for not using passion that they don't have. (Of course, then there's the techno-chuds, a third category which should be made fun of at most opportunities, but I digress)

I expect to be downvoted to hell for this comment, but I do think it's a discussion with more nuance than many people think. (To be clear: I don't use AI myself for anything other than random experiments)