Hey thanks for playing and for the suggestions. I'll keep them in mind.
As for the AI art - all I can say is that I'm not an artist and I believe that because of it you got to play my idea. I like to think my 'soul' was in the code/design of the game. I'll rephrase it as you have -- "As a developer, is my worth only how well I can draw?"
Interesting to see your take on dragonsweeper, it's definitely a cool concept to extend the gameplay like this! Also cool to see such an active community around your game. On the AI note, have you considered using some of the free game asset packs from other developers on Itch if you do not want / are not able to create art yourself? There's a huge variety, and you would be supporting other developers' creative work in the process, rather than supporting AI. Here's a link to assets tagged as free and pixel art as an example https://itch.io/game-assets/free/tag-no-ai/tag-pixel-art (edited my reply to add the no-ai tag to that url too!)
Thanks for playing and for the actual constructive take on the AI use. I should say that I would LOVE to have real art instead. The main issue is that even with asset packs, it's hard (near impossible) to completely source art that I need so that it's all a relatively consistent style across the entire game. The ideal scenario is I find someone who can create it as a free/revshare contributor, as I work on this mostly for fun myself. I understand the reality, though, that I can't ask for so much time commitment like that of a stranger.
Lemme put it in practical terms: if you want that ideal scenario of someone making art for you, you'll have a tougher time finding someone when you're known to use AI art instead of free placeholder assets given its impopularity among artists.
Anyway, that's all from me, I'm sure you'll figure out what standards you want to be known for, whatever they may be.