At the risk of stating the obvious and wasting people's time, it seems pretty self-evident that knowing about the existence of a species we didn't know about before is more interesting than someone creating an image of something that may or may not exist.
I think you're asserting your opinion about a strawman situation as fact...
Put another, slightly more concrete way: what is more interesting, a photograph of a newly discovered moon of Jupiter, or a new album by Taylor Swift? Obviously people are interested in different things. Believe it or not, many people would forget about the new moon or new species within seconds or minutes.
If someone used generative AI tools to create a visually impactful image, I could imagine someone hanging it on their wall, and being completely disinterested in a photo of a newly discovered jellyfish.
... still yes. You can use generative AI to general novel text, images, videos, and sounds just as much as you can record or photograph something that has never been captured before with a camera or microphone.
Why did you have such a negative emotional response to such a plain fact?
Edit: wait I said "they" because I thought you clearly misread the comment, but I just realized you posted it yourself. Now I'm really confused.