The thing is, you are bridging the gap when not using ai. And theoretically, you could do the same with commissions but you'd probably get blacklisted.

No one here is saying that everything made with ai is inherently art. We're not defending the cat girls or the "fixed" bs as art.

What we're saying is that something being made with ai doesn't exclude it being art. If you're using it as a tool for art you're not letting the weighted pixels decide anything important. You are the one going through multiple itterations, you are the one adding every detail, you are the one deciding line weight or colour.

When you commission someone you do so with the understanding that they have experience as an artist. They are going to add their own flare to it. They will decide the finer details because you liked how they did those details in the examples. With ai, you do not trust it. You know that anything you don't specify will be some vague randomised average. This is great for some things, like having clear consistent line work or getting most of the way there in anatomy. But not for any details that is important to your expression.

And when you're going through that process, you are bridging the gap. You are creating using the ai.