I entirely agree with you on this, Marsha. For Medium, I've always managed to find a stock photo that either suited well enough, or that I could jokily twist into place with a suitable caption.

I have some old children's stories I've been thinking of dusting off and self-publishing - but for a kids' book I need pictures. I could now do that quite easily with a month's sub to an AI image generator. But I won't. If my son has time to do some illustrations for me next year, great. If not, in the drawer (hard drive) the stories stay.

My son is a very good artist, and may one day want to become an illustrator. But he won't be able to if his own dad has helped destroy the profession.