This is a perfect example of how AI can actually be used as a tool to help people with processes like animation, instead of just being used by corporations as a "make (garbage tier) art dirt cheap" shortcut.
The problem too many are using it for just that, or are at least trying to, result in an justified push back, but like you said, their use of it has also sadly had a negative impact on AI's reputation as well.
It's the fact that people have zero idea what AI actually is. AI is basically a buzzword that tech bros/companies use for virturally anything, but there are several different types of AI that can exists. Nowadays everyone thinks of Generative AI (art, music, videos) is AI as a whole, but no majority of AI can be used for good (object recognition, speech help and translation, image searching, accesibility features, etc), and in this case, generating time consuming frames of animation based on art and keyframes (Spiderverse did this too btw).
Also it hit me this technically is generative AI since it generates frames of animation but you know, it's not the one people think of.