You're correct, but I think many don't realize how many small model trainers and fine-tuners there are currently. For example, PonyXL, or the many models and fine-tunes on CivitAI made by hobbyists.

So basically the reasoning is this:

- NYT vs OpenAI, neither is disenfranchied - OpenAI vs individual creators, creators are disenfranchised - NYT vs individual model trainers, model trainers are disenfranchised - Individual model trainers vs individual creators, neither are disenfranchised

And if only one can win, and since the view is that information should be free, it biases the argument towards the model trainers.

What "information" are you talking about? It's a text and image generator.

Your argument is that it's okay to scrape content when you are an individual. It doesn't change the fact those individuals are people with technical expertise using it to exploit people without.

If they wrote a bot to annoy people but published how many people got angry about it, would you say it's okay because that is information?

You need to draw the line somewhere.