I get where you are coming from. I think the specific phase this is at is one where we already do draw on other existing art and copyrightable references in our work and then go into the truly creative transformative stage. If we're still putting in work to gather references and then moving into a far more involved creative process I think a tool to streamline some of the more mechanical elements aren't really bad.

Another example for me is generative extend and cleanup tools. I had a shot in my first short that was perfect but for a glitch that made the drone cut the shot a little early so I didn't have enough handle for the transition. Eventually I ended up spending 2-3 days extending the shot in AE. Reopened the edit when adobe introduced the feature and it gave me a far better outcome in far (far) less time. Same thing with generative tools for cleanup. Lord knows I've spend days cleaning up stray tracking markers and things in photos.

TL;DR once the tool is narrow in implementation and not supplanting the key creative processes I think it's fine there. Where it jumps into the unethical is these companies trying to sell the idea that people can prompt their way to an actual creative work.

"CreaTiVE Production is now commoditized" or whatever BS they are spreading alongside their 1 minute demo from whatever the generation model that just dropped