Anyone with ⅑ of a brain has already realised AI isn't going to replace anyone other than people who have the word "AI" under their name on linkedin or ycombinator.

AI has already replaced people. Just not very many... yet.

I found this in a few seconds of searching: https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/ai-replacing-artists-heres-p...

Anyway that's off topic. It doesn't need to completely replace people to not be a fad.

And yet it's immediately evident to anyone when a website is using AI "art" and it looks completely pointless.

That's a little like how people still don't like CGI in films though...

We can't un-invent LLMs, but it's less about excitement and more about practical use cases - there are fewer of them than commonly believed.

I think you've arrived at the nuanced answer: AI absolutely has changed things, but probably not in the all-encompassing way that various proponents or corporate marketeers would have us believe.