how can crime be bad if it forces us to police crime?

Depends on the observer and your definition of "bad".

The police are happy they are paid. The victims are sad they are hurt. Is society better as a whole because it can handle crime? I'm not sure.

What does bad mean? Seems like an overloaded concept, ask around and good luck.

You can have a lot more fun by completely reducing the original question and plugging in different values for "strictly awful" and "AI content" and "it forces us to..."

How can eating be good if we just get hungry again? Implies eating is bad despite the value we derive from it.

How can hard work be bad if it produces meaningful results? Implies hard work is good despite the pains we take on from it.

I would argue that this kind of reduction and replacement significantly changes the original question, but it is a fun thing to explore. I'm not sure we'll get closer to an answer to the original, though. And I'm not sure it's safe to take the answer from one of the derived questions and use it for the original.

But don't take my word for it, I'm mostly restating one of the key points from Thinking Fast and Slow.

Can I safely assume that what you were implying is that AI content is undesirable because it is a strain on human systems? I think that's the point the article was trying to make.