> Does this actually happen at large scale
Yes?
Go to any convention center. Go commission a piece of art on the internet.
It is almost all infringing "fan art".
> I can see someone making a few hundred bucks with their fan art
Its not some rando person doing this stuff for a hobby. Instead, I am talking about the entire industry.
All you'd have to do is go to any gaming/media/comic convention and this is immediately obvious.
> that fan art is meaningfully competing with (ie reducing) the market for the original IP.
I mean, ok? Then if thats your metric, then you can't complain about the entire open source industry of people making AI art on their home PCs.
If you are giving that gigantic, large hole to slip through, then you have now allowed almost the entire open source AI art industry to exist.