There was this funny period in late 00's when fashion photogs were switching over to digital. The new smooth, grainless look took over, and suddenly everyone was competing for the smoothest skin on the models. So airbrushing absolutely skyrocketed, to the degree that the models looked way more artificial than even the crappiest AI today.
Eventually, people started to really complain about the airbrushing - but specifically about the airbrushing, not the smooth look - so the fashion industry eased down on that or even stopped altogether, and instead doubled down on heavy make-up. So the end result was basically the same, but at least the photogs could claim they don't use airbrush. And then everyone forgot this was ever an issue, photoshopping became re-normalised, and things evened out.
No life lesson here, but it's funny how stuff like this keeps repeating. These days, photogs and writers avoid techniques that "look like AI", because the common folk always assumes everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of whatever the new buzzword is. Eventually it'll just blend together, like it always does.