I saw a post somewhere about there being four different types of artists.
1. Those who do it for the money
2. Those who are in it for the attention
3. Those who do it because they like the process,
4. Those who do it for for the results.
There’s definitely a venn diagram for these, but the differences go a long way to explaining why some artists have an issue with AI Art while others don’t.

If you’re in it for the attention, you probably have a massive issue with the average person being able to create things they spent years learning how to do, nevermind the time spent and carving out their own niche in the community, and it’s in your own best interest to gatekeep the art community to avoid losing your supposed power and influence.

If you do it for the process, you probably think bypassing specific processes and skills required in the making of art is an affront to the gods themselves, as it is the journey and not the destination that is the actual art.

If you’re in it for the money or the results, it probably doesn’t matter how you get there so long as you achieve the result you were going for or were paid for, and are generally ok with AI tools, and probably even use them.