The REAL Fight Over AI Art

The same "technology replaces people" is an argument heard repeatedly but I can't see justification for it. Do we limit technological advancement for the sake of jobs? We haven't done the same for various occupations in the past, so why is it different for artists?

Tangentially, if AI art is considered theft, then surely human art is also considered theft? So much art in the world is reinterpretations and remixes of existing art. Artists uses hundreds of "references" to make their art, even using color picking to sample directly. As Picasso said, "Good artists copy, great artists steal." What's the AI doing differently?