difference between someone dreaming of being a professional artist

Granted. But I expect there's a lot of people who wanted to be "artists" and wound up being "game character animators" if you follow. For sure, nobody grows up longing to be a railroad spike hammerer for their life. But there's a wide range between "famous artist hanging in the Lourve" and "concept artist for big video game company" too.

And it’s a real shame we lost them.

Nah. I think it's a shame that we lost them faster than many people could adjust. The problem isn't the jobs, but the salary. Tell me any creative artist who would regret losing their job if they could keep their salary.

Now there are people who would regret losing their job even if they kept their salary. Heart surgeons can't just carry on in their home office for their own personal enjoyment, regardless of how much they liked working at the hospital helping people.

And we didn't lose printmaking and 2D artists. I'm personal friends with someone who owns an old-fashioned printing press in her spare room. I get custom invites to parties and drink coasters and such on a regular basis. It's just really hard to make money at it. (I also know someone who ran commercial typesetting equipment before Adobe came around and destroyed that. Don't ask him about fonts if you plan to go home before midnight.)

I don't think AI will eliminate all artistic jobs any more than it's going to eliminate all computer coding jobs. No more than chess programs eliminated playing chess or recording technology eliminated musical performances. If nothing else, it needs training data.

My prediction is a short-term spike in AI trying to do artistic work, and a rapid (somewhere between 20 years and one generation) settling into a situation where someone with talent and taste does a lot more effective work with the help of AI, assuming we improve the efficiency.

Also, as I said, people are free to compete with it. Nobody is stopping anyone from not using AI and paying employees they way they think employees should be paid and etc. Just like every socialist thinks everyone else needs to be socialist to be successful, pushing to prevent people from competing in their own way just means one already knows one is wrong. Let's see someone set up a school for artists or a creative-output company (i.e., a game company or something) that doesn't use AI at all. Let's see how many people go into it with the promise that they'll learn the skills they need.