> It signals not playing by midwit pearl clutcher rules.

Pre-torn jeans signal being a poser, wanting the torn jeans look without having the lifestyle that results in torn jeans, or even having the agency to tear your own jeans

So it's an apt analogy for AI users I guess. People who want to build creative works without ever putting in any effort to learn how

Modern society rewards taking shortcuts way too much

I mostly agree but here my analogy was reversed compared to yours. In my analogy the nicely dressed church lady is the professional, politically correct, climate conscious, anti AI redditor. The torn clothes punk hobo is the lazy rulebraking AI shoveler who makes the shared spaces dirty, and the smart iconoclast contrarian rebel artist poet ignoring schoolmarm rules is the person who uses AI but also makes otherwise high quality content.

(don't get hung up on the climate thing - I'm not arguing on the object level. A Christian believer can also be annoyed by the Karen-like peal clutcher no-fun-allowed church lady archetype).