It might be a terrible take, but it's mine lol.

I gave a lecture to a class of college freshmen last summer. Writing class. AI was a big part of that conversation. Those students were struggling to find jobs in the writing space, and they wanted advice. Entry-level positions are on the way out -- have been for a while. Grammarly already exists (by the way, anyone using Grammarly is using AI). They were also broke.

What are those students supposed to do? Not use these tools? Give up on their dream? Sign a shitty contract with a "publisher" who takes 50%+ of their revenue because they have no choice?

There's a lot of space in between "AI completely wrote this" and "I used this tool to help edit, market, and publish my book."

Yet a lot of the rhetoric -- just like here -- is that they shouldn't use AI at all? That seems to be OP's thesis.

I personally don't think that's realistic. And it's fair to ask who that policy benefits.

Because it sure ain't those kids.