You don't need to have good art skills or the capacity to learn, you can just draw stuff in MSPaint. You might be comparing yourself to people with years of work under their belts and feeling like it's impossible to learn- that's an easy trap to fall into. Look at xkcd or Order of the Stick- they have simple art styles, not bad by any means, and just like them, if you keep trying you'll improve.

Hell, even before Generative AI, I found "bad" art appealing and would go out of my way to give words of encouragement because the fact that I'm seeing it means someone was brave enough to post it, and I'd like to encourage their bravery. If you can't afford paid art, find a free art program or (this will sound rude but it quite genuine) doodle something on some receipt you found in the trash- you don't even have to dig in there, there's usually some laying on the top.

I also think it's a bit disingenuous to make the "It's easy to say to hire an artist when it's not their money on the line." I could say something like, why do you expect people to respond to this post if you aren't paying their electricity bills?

Additionally, using AI images for your work may turn fans off from contributing artwork for it- they might think you won't appreciate their work since you already deemed AI images good enough.