My wife is a portrait artist, and when she usually does a commissioned portrait for someone, I am astounded by the amount of time that she spends purely working on the eyes. (ex. [1],[2])
Looking at these in comparison to her work, it is definitely true that the eyes are the windows into the soul, and define a LOT about a person's face. (Or even an animal - she does pet portraits too).
Even in looking at her very early work in art school - I can forgive the odd crooked nose or askew mouth as long as the eyes tell the story.
Looking at these AI generated portraits, I find the facial features really interesting, but it is the artificial, dead quality of the eyes that make me somewhat uncomfortable with them, and induce a slight feeling of horror, as exceptional as the artwork is.