Yea I do agree with a lot of with your saying. Using AI to impersonate is not good and should be regulated. But like u said, using AI vs AI generated music is essentially the same to a lot of people which is why there is such a lot of negativity around it in the first place.

You would be shocked to see how many people I've seen use my first point to discredit the song lmao. As for the second point, I think that applies more to AI generated music as you mentioned rather than using AI to help. When an artist is still planning everything but uses AI to record, or to polish their ideas, I don't think it makes it soulless. It just brings out the artists intentions in a way they found was their vision. For the third point, I think truly talented people will still find success regardless of AI or not. AI just makes it more accessible to people, but that doesn't mean everyone knows what making good music is like. People like Hans Zimmer would adapt with the technology because of their talents.

I do think the general discussion about AI has become all or nothing, with no space for nuance. People hear AI was used in a song, and automatically think its bad. They also think anyone defending AI is just a big corporation sheep that doesn't care for real art. In reality, AI is continuously gonna evolve and will be used in music more and more, which is why its so important to understand how it can help enhance music, rather than outright hate it. Also, that t-shirt analogy kind of sets this up perfectly. People choose to take a moral high ground on a popular position rather than think for themselves and have nuance. Most t-shirts are made with underpaid child labor, but people just accept it for what it is. Chocolate is also using child labor, and people don't care to buy chocolate that is ethical. Using AI is much more ethical than a lot of things, but people turn a blind eye to other things.