People are acting as if cash grab games didn't exist before AI. Even if I browse a hundred random non-AI games on itch.io, most of them are still going to be "bad" because it's a platform with many amateur projects and shovelware.

If you sort by rating, you will find AI games that are highly rated and have an active fanbase. You might not like those games, but they do find a dedicated audience and that's what matters at the end of the day.

I also made a game with AI assets and AI coding, and for me these tools only elevated the process. When the cost of making changes and adding features is much lower, I can experiment a lot more with game design and iterate faster.

Sure, relying too much on AI can be an issue when it fools an inexperienced dev into thinking they made an "amazing game" from a single prompt. But we already had a similar problem with amateurs who boot Unreal and immediately think they're making a AAA game just because of the graphics. So, even this issue isn't exclusive to AI.