Yet what you are describing as your whole process is merely a fraction of other artforms work/talent requirements.
So yeah, I get it, but I do think the acknowledgment that the entire style,workings and reasoning behind things is skipped over when making AI art.
It is fine to still be an artform, but it is inferior in requirement, its the equivalent of saying "Tic Tac Toe" is the same as "chess" they are obviously not, and while they both use similar things like strategy it is not to the same level and won't ever be, no matter how much someone might enjoy and like tic tac toe, they will always just be at an inferior level than someone who plays chess, and in the same vein someone can really like AI art and being an AI artist but they are not on the same level as a real artist.
(Inferior and level here simply meaning strategy wise, not diminishing a person)
AI art and artists are real, but whether or not they are "real" artists is a whole different story.
BTW only reason I have an opinion is I work on a graphic design company, with around 600 artists, and while most of them are not against AI art at all, I can assure you just from work that I have to see daily. AI art doesn't hold a candle to real art. It feels different, looks different and just is an entirely different thing.
Not against AI art, but I am against AI artists trying to say they are the same as other artists in other areas.