they are not comparable, one is vastly simpler than the other.
Yes. A skilled artist can create a satisfying line art within a minute with only paper and a pen. It is like writing in pictures, once you have that skill. I would call that simple.
You do can compare those things, but the scale of simplicity does not apply.
An analogy would be to compare taking a photo of a scene vs painting it with oil or water colors on canvas. The required skill is different. And now people have cameras available all the time, which need very little skill with the technology to get a photo at all.
So, to get a result with a prompt, that is easy. Just hit enter after writing. To get the result you wanted with a prompt, is vastly more complicated and often involves hand editing the result and sifting through hundreds of outputs - not unlike taking photos.
And I want to enter a third option into the ring. Procedural rendering. That's pretty advanced these days, but not really complicated, once the engine is there. You just adjust some sliders or hit random and there's your reuseable character. Even ready to use in real time. Simple, ain't it.
The issue I have with AI images is, that they look boring. It is all the same and most of it is thus immediatly recogniseable. Ironically it takes skill to use AI images effectively. Just not the skill to draw by hand.