Treating Imagen as just an "AI art generator" is extremely short sighted. Sure, you could just try to sell the outputs directly. But the real value is using it to supplement larger works. No need for a stock photo subscription service if you can just generate them automatically. Don't need artists to create textures for your simple games. I can spin up a merch shop powered entirely by AI art and nobody would know. The marginal cost of creation is approaching zero.
And perhaps even more interestingly these things not only exist but there is competition in this space! Essentially unregulated competition as well (and likely for the next 10 years). The cost will be driven into the ground.
