It's still quite obscure to actually mess with AI art instead of just throwing prompts at it, resulting in slop of varying quality levels. And I don't mean controlnet, but github repos with comfyui plugins with little explanation but a link to a paper, or "this is absolutely mathematically unsound but fun to mess with". Messing with stuff other than conditioning or mere model selection.
The time will come, you can slowly see the tide turning :) Most people aren't inherently against it, just (understandably) cautious, and at worst misinformed or radicalized about hating it.
I tend to make recordings and snapshots of work in progress and then turn that into one of those animations that blends frame to frame to show the entire process. Just being able to show that it wasn't just doing nothing yourself and that it's still your creation really helps make people understand.