Honestly I think that it’s models like these that output things that could be called art.

Whenever a model is actually good, it just creates pretty pictures that would have otherwise been painted by a human, whereas this actually creates something unique and novel. Just like real art almost always ilicits some kind of emotion, so too do the products of models like these and I think that that’s much more interesting that having another generic AI postcard.

Not that I’m happy to see how much SD has fallen though.

I’ve had a pretty similar journey to yours and I’m currently using Qwant, although the only reason I’m using them is because they’re based in Europe and haven’t had any scandals that I could find. If you’re really concerned about privacy I’ve heard good things about Kagi.