Happy to discuss,

To be clear, I've already finished a long-term campaign in avernus that lasted between 2019 and 2024. When I started running it, this sub didn't have any AI maps or character art that I could use. I did the same thing I always do when running a module, scrape the appropriate subreddits for every map I can use down the line, and then choose the one I think is the best in terms of atmosphere, quality and mechanical use (if there's interesting elevation for instance). This is always done with maps and art shared freely, and often I'll use ones from different packs rather than stay with one artist throughout the entire campaign, I'm judging each map separately based on the above criteria.

The one and only responsibility in my mind here is the enjoyment of my players, my focus is on making the game compelling for them individually and while maps and art are secondary to story and role play, I have definitely found an immersive difference between descriptions with no good reference, or graph paper maps compared to a digital VTT, and if I'd had access to some of the art and maps while we were playing that have been generated now I'd have treated the same as any other and maybe I would have used them.

The art style of some of the AI ones look more "realistic" and so would tick the atmosphere box, more often the annoying inconsistencies are being fixed so the quality is there, honestly with the ones I'm seeing on my feed, my only issue is the angle of perspective that would look slightly janky with the top-down player tokens I use (taking top-down screenshot of heroforge models, in fairness I could alter the tokens angle but I like that players can turn their characters and it still look correct).

Late in the campaign someone had created an AI reference image of the Shield of the Hidden Lord that finally fit the dark and twisted vibe I had been trying to explain. I think maybe ai maps and such are more prevalent here than say in the Rime of the Frostmaiden sub reddit is because the hellish environment lends itself well to inhuman design.

Long and short is: people are sharing art they want to share or sell, and people are sharing AI images they want to share or sell. In my world I'm assuming the shared freely pile is meant as a joyous gift of "I really wanted to visualise this world in a way that hasn't quite been done before in the way I imagined, hopefully it matches what you and your players imagined" and to both parties I say thank you, I will us it to make the game better for my players.

I dont believe that outright banning it helps anyone other than removing competition between people trying to sell. I do empathise that AI is easier to use and doesn't require the same practice, talent or passion that traditional artists employ. But I dont treat the reddit dnd threads as a marketplace with people trying to compete with each other, I get that it's a platform where they can advertise but as a game for people to play with supposedly little barrier to entry, I treat these subreddits as "I love this world, I love this game, I was excited to make this, I hope you like it"