[rendaw]

Isn't it also possible that it wasn't an artist at all, instead someone whose job was never illustrating scientific articles (like a manager or a random intern), who put the text in the prompt and went "that looks pretty sciency, good enough" and the person responsible for the publication went "great, we just got a sciency image and saved $XX!"

Yeah the intern is now an "artist" but I think lumping them together is muddling the discussion.