If a person is just specifying the desired result to a genAI system and taking what is generated, then yes. That person hasn't created anything any more than they "created" something by hiring a person, specifying what they want them to do, and taking what they generated.

Having someone or something else do the crafting is commissioning, not creating.

> It still means something different because you took it.

Well, no. At least, for me this cheap "feel good" stuff never really worked. It means something different if you made it different in some way. Could be a different technique, or different focus. If it's the same stuff that everybody else does it's worth less than nothing, and I can't see how me being the author changes that.

Your thoughts are understood, but in the creative universe, maybe AI-generated art is more of a popular genre rather than something synonymous with art. Instead, AI art is just another category that only competes with traditional art on the level of mimesis.