It's hardly comparable. The excavator does not owe its creative influence to the hole diggers. The quality of its work does not result from someone else's intellectual labor. It's 100% the digger doing the digging.
We care a lot about Copilot, we care somewhat about artists, we care little about manual workers, and less so if they are in another country.
I'm not sure of what I'd call this relationship, but parasitic is close to it.
But it does. While not as complex as AI art generation, the excavator is mimicking the hole digger. It takes a human action, generalizes it, and offers it in a more efficient manner.