I see literally zero problems here. Did they have a contract with an artist? They didn’t? Well then it sounds like they have no obligation to use a real artist.
AI art is here to stay, and companies will be using it heavily. It’s ignorant to think they would choose otherwise. Why pay an artist to make an image you may not even like over the course of a few days when you could get hundreds of images to choose from in a few seconds using AI? It’s 1000 times easier and more convenient.
The difference here is you were having arguments with someone during development. It’s easy to look at a successful final product and say “that guy had no clue what he was talking about about!”
Bethesda is saying the same thing about their fans, but for a final product that’s not very good. It’s one thing to dismiss criticism during your process, but to dismiss criticism after you present your results is basically saying you are never open to it.