The problem is broader than this. There is a tradition of using photography to record real world events (photojournalism) which has been quite broadly adopted within our cultures - we believe a photograph as reflecting events that have happened.

The problem with these AI generated 'realistic photojournalist' images is that they erode the belief in these images as being factual representations of real world events.

Just think of the impact that, say, war photography has had on the world, and our understanding of the horrors that our governments decisions have had on people's lives. Would Nick Ut's 'The terror of war' have had the impact it did if AI image generation was available at the time? I believe there was at the time an attempt to say it was staged, but there are many many ways of dismissing an image these days.

So, I think we have lost something, but it's much greater than the connection with a subject that the author is concerned with.