The fact you think that it costs tens of thousands of dollars to commission artists and that theft from independent creatives is okay seem to indicate to me that you're extremely sheltered and morally deviant. Like you obviously are so sheltered that you never even bothered googling how much an artist on DeviantART charges for a commission. Do the police know you think it's okay to shoplift and commit larceny?
Dude, people do struggle with the creativity aspect of creating art like this. There shouldn't be a problem with someone doing that, yes they could be "stealing art" but it's not the same thing with literally taking someones whole peices of art and it becoming the biggest game in the whole world. They probably just wanted to create a game and maybe didn't have time to make their own drawings and art. Making art is extremely difficult to do, I would think you would know that as well, as there are other creators who make their own art and it takes years for them to finish and some people just can't find the time for stuff like that. Just let people do what they want especially for something so minimal as making an indie game like this.
https://juliabausenhardt.com/how-ai-is-stealing-your-art/
https://www.theeagleonline.com/article/2024/01/op-ed-ai-art-is-art-theft-and-sho...
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/is-ai-art-stealing-from-artist...
https://www.pcgamer.com/persona-voice-actress-driven-off-twitter-after-condemnin...
https://juliabausenhardt.com/how-ai-is-stealing-your-art/
https://www.theeagleonline.com/article/2024/01/op-ed-ai-art-is-art-theft-and-sho...
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/is-ai-art-stealing-from-artist...
https://www.pcgamer.com/persona-voice-actress-driven-off-twitter-after-condemnin...
Dude, for one, not everyone goes searching about these specific things, I' not gonna keep arguing with you, but you also need to remeber, you are getting mad about somebody who made this game over a year ago. It doesn't matter about this game anymore, you proved your point, but yelling at people over it just makes you a jerk. Yes I have seen these things before of ai stealing art from other people, but you should just calm down about it dude.