Why does how hard something was to make have anything to do with how good the art is? Three chord punk bands were in my view artistically superior to a lot of rock music from before as they made a structural innovation with the power chord.
If an artist has something to say with AI, they can just say it, no one is going to imprison them. Artists did that throughout the entire history (sometime even with the threat of being jailed), nothing changed in this regard with AI.
Art is hard not because of the tools but because you have to have something worthwhile to say (most people don’t) and you have to figure out a way how to get another human to listen, and also you have to hope that someone some day will listen because what you’re saying is true, even if it doesn’t sell today or ever.
P.s. Pop art actually directly talked about this relationship with the market and it’s interesting because of that, not only because the colors and shapes were fun to look at (but that too).