Not everyone can afford to buy commissions sadly. I think AI art is a good temporary solution in this cases, there already are plenty of text only games out there and I'd rather have generated art than no art at all. There will always be people willing to pay artists for original high quality art, a few individuals generating art do not take away that many people from them.
Viewing post in My College Friend's Dad comments
good thing that nothing was stolen from artists then, since the art was generated. AI art is a thing, as the time passes it will only get better and more popular. deal with it and stop whining.
Also, if you think you can just go around the community and ask for free art it means you don't engage with the community at all.