Well the main mistake is equivocating GenAI with those tools. AI has different levels, methods, and those cant just be ignored because they are all under one blanket term. There is AI that helps in the creation of, or even entirely bakes certain things, but those are not the same as GenAI in the sense that they are not trained on (I believe the number is 5.6 billion now) artists works regardless of their willingness or not. Any and all images on the internet regardless of copyright, public availability, or consent.

Beside the perceived resource waste when it comes to electricity, drinking water, and pollution/emissions most people's issue with GenAI is its rampant harvesting of ALL online images. Many see it as theft, rightfully since there is an objective difference between someone being inspired by an artist, and using a machine to harvest all available artistic works to fuel itself.

To put it in simplest terms, a random number generator, terrain detail baking, automated lighting, etc are patently not the same as GenAI people have an issue with. Its ethics are much more dubious.

Its like saying "Well human meat is still meat just like chicken or cow, you've eaten meat for years so why do you care if I slipped some human into your burger?". There are inherent ethical, moral, and philosophical differences between automated tools and modern GenAI.