> Are engineers this terrified of originality that celebrating generic imagery would become a battle cry of mediocrity?

I think it's OP who is more terrified of the originality of letting anyone create with AI.

> This is unusual, a drive to embrace uniformity, and perhaps this is what internet pluralization is about. Those lacking visual imagination would come together celebrate mediocrity of imagery as a battle-cry, rally around software that roboticizes creativity.

It's almost comical how opposite my read of this was. Forcing people to "learn how to draw" is embracing uniformity rather than letting them create with whatever tool is available to them.

> The tone of these replies seems to reveal a rage that's about defending the right to eviscerate creativity.

Is creating tools to make it easier to create really the evisceration of creativity or the creation of new venues to create? In my mind it's the latter.