I paid $1500 for a commissioned painting from an artist I respect and follow as a birthday present for a friend. The painting meant something to me because I worked with the artist to have some input about what kind of a person my friend is, what kind of features I want to see in the painting and how I want it to feel. The artist gave me 5 different sketches and we had tons of back and forth. The process and the act of creating the painting on a canvas from someone I respect is what I paid for.
Even if an AI could generate an exactly equivalent painting, I would pay $0 for it. It wouldn't mean anything to me.
You would still work with the model back and forth with editing the prompt and image to figure out what it meant, what kind of person your friend is, what you were looking for (even the things you couldn't verbalize and only knew when you spotted them in a large array of diverse samples, the sort you could never hire a human to do), how you wanted it to feel... And then you would also have $1500 for another gift. Personally, I would prefer the scenario in which I received a unique meaningful painting from my friend, plus $1500.
Don't entirely disagree with what you're saying - I believe Dall-E 6 or whatever will get to that level of sophistication. One more thing though - I felt the painting is worth more because the artist toiled for it. It's like a "lofi 10 hour soundtrack" on youtube vs. an album from an acclaimed artist. I listen to each song 100 times over from the latter meanwhile the lofi video just plays in the background. Knowing someone toiled over it and put their heart and soul into the art gives it the value, for me.
Even if an AI could generate an exactly equivalent painting, I would pay $0 for it. It wouldn't mean anything to me.