as a purchase, yes, art has always been a luxury product. buyers will buy bread and pay rent before buying a print or a painting, that's always been the case. art isn't a necessity. i'm self aware enough about what i produce to know that, and that it means tougher times for me during periods of economic decline, when people tighten their purses. notably though, not everyone does. there are people with more money than i can ever dream of, who can still afford art services even during a recession. the gaming and film industry still needs concept art.

i don't think these clients will be best served by AI, because they're fundamentally very picky and at onve indecisive. many clients don't know what they want in detail - you have to help them figure it out. this might seem unusual for people who are thinking of how they commission, because you're doing it as a rare occurrence. but for frequent contractors, they often know they want 'something along the lines of a guy looking meaningfully at the sky while a rocket flies by, here are the size and dpi requirements, get it done by Tue,' and you have to help them figure out what that means, because they don't know what they want, but they know what they don't want when they see it. an AI can't do that.

also back in the day, artists used to be fostered by patrons, the richest people of a region. it doesn't make leonardo's work any less artistic. admitting art is a commercial product too doesn't poison the well.