Slop is a byproduct of instrumental convergence, which is a byproduct of an individualist extractive culture.

You had the same backlash around CGI and digital artwork back when those things were novel, and neither were responsible for the wave of shitty Disney animated sequels, which was a prominent form of industrial slop at the turn of the millennium.

Intelligence is collective and shared, and the support systems for creators make them dependant of claiming “ownership” which is blatantly impossible to attach to things like “style,” so you get kids on tumblr fighting each other over who had a specific anime inspired aesthetic ‘first.’

Also see how certain inventions get invented in completely different environments at the same time. A lot of invention is just luck mixed with the privilege of being allowed to comfortably explore that space while still getting to survive, so the current social structure allows those with more of such privilege to claim ownership in the entire area of thought or action, limiting everyone else for the sake of the individual, or the system which they are supporting, who got the right mix of serendipity and privilege. (mixed with personal context and probably a lot of hard work.)

So, basically our current society makes slop inevitable, while privilege the wealthy, and ensuring the poor endlessly fight for scraps while the wealthy continue to extract and hoard.

I wish people care as much about system shaping as they care about conflating artists and ‘artists’ in usage of a specific tool.