This is so well put.
We saw the same petit-bourgeois pushback against the collageist works of Hockney, Kruger or Bradford from people who thought that an original work on a biscuit tin was more valid as a form of art than the incorporation of found materials by Braque or Picasso.
Without wishing to sound too much like the Vorticists, this backwards stance will be washed away in another few years, and will be looked on as a protectionist - and at best misguided - attempt to push back against a new, democratised medium which allows everyone to at least
attempt to create new works (however mixed the results). And if human-created art is indeed so superior to the better art created with the use of AI then it has nothing to fear. Such superior qualities will surely shine through.
The ironic thing is that graphic designers and artists using Adobe products -
which Mongoose use for their own products - already use AI as a matter of course. Not generative AI, but AI nonetheless, which you can see in Mongoose's own works. A
great many popular effects and filters are AI-powered, and Adobe are pushing these capabilities vigorously, if not
explicitly. This position is not just misguided but also a case of egregious double standards, although I understand that with a tiny (but very vocal) minority it gains plaudits.
You can see the frustration from someone creative and capable like
@CyborgPrime at this silly, closed-shop, ladder-pulling-up decision.