I have wondered whether photo-editing and AI would kill off most of the interest in photography. The answer is Yes, if 'interest' means trivial prettiness, that is, extreme colors, sheer size, and freakish verticalities. AI can fake all that, so what does that leave for photography?
The good news is that photos are still a great way to express visual metaphors about significant things in life. Visual metaphors should have been what photographers were aiming at, all along.
Does a photographer realize at the time the photo is taken that it will be a good metaphor, or does that realization occur only with hindsight? For my part, I usually see a photo's value as a metaphor when looking back at photos long ago.
But there are exceptions. Consider:
No rain had been prophesied for the day, and yet here it was. Look at this photo from the point of view of a camper in a western state where you expect horrible wildfires at this time in the summer.
From a big picture point of view, world opinion -- even amongst Republicans in the USA -- is moving against the murder campaign of the Trumpanyahu regime. It seems like every day, somebody is getting a little more courageous against Israel.
So I could look at the photo and immediately appreciate what it meant.
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Feel free to disagree as much as you want with any ideas, but resist the ad hominem approach.