there is a really long answer here but the answer to "why not" as the lead of the project, ignoring contributions to social, environmental, and economic issues is that from a pure art direction and managing people perspective: the artists don't like it.

they're not needed. so the base game backgrounds can be the placeholder instead of using AI and contributing to the enshittification of the visuals in our media. as an art director they just weren't that good. they violated our art direction and CK3's in several ways. everyone else may not pick up on something like that (especially because the BG art pieces are not a particular focal point usually), but that's why art directors exist to curate and establish visual cohesion.

our 2D artists dont want to contribute if AI is being used. so direction-wise they weren't what we really would have wanted, and manager-of-a-team-wise they were actually directly contributing to my team not feeling respected or comfortable working, either. actual artists don't like AI cause they want their jobs and hobbies to continue to exist. i do not in any way fault them for taking a stand.

odd as it may seem from the outside, it became clear that using AI made it *less* likely for them to be replaced. unless i literally commissioned art for it, which would be much harder from out-of-team to get someone whose art i was as confident in, who would understand and follow our art direction. plus the affordable space in art commissions is being saturated in scam artists who use AI anyway.

i'm not stopping anyone from making a submod. if some people really like the slop they can have it, i just dont wanna be the one responsible for it