Will the difference between mass-produced glossy garbage and unique results of sustained human effort and productivity become ever more pronounced, leading to a massive increase in the value of the latter in the eyes of not just connoiseurs, but the masses as well?

I think “humanly personalized” elements will become more prominent and valuable. As a silly example, I used to find out new books to read through online reviews. Now I don’t, because I know they are written by ai bots that are just spouting random stuff, they don’t have an opinion on the matter. I’d rather read what the librarian recommends, even if their taste is not exactly mine. But I see they are human and I can talk to them about books and opinions.

I would hope that the more regularly people interact with AI slop, the more obvious it becomes to them that it's, for lack of a better term, soulless - and soullessness is intuitively repugnant.

The masses are slop, or at least that is what the people behind ai are counting on.

Sure. You’re going to have to do almost everything yourself or barter when our economy and society collapse.

I’m not a doomer, necessarily, but this bubble and the kind of people pushing it seem to actively want a bad ending. They are pushing this from other non-“ai” angles too.

Doubtful. The masses mostly care about cost and convenience.