Like I thought the whole point of these stupid things was that any John Q off the street could make awesome videos?

Have you played around with stuff like sora 2 or veo 3 or seen the work of regular John Q's who have? In general, the quality of marketing for AI tools is far better than the quality of AI-generated video. These tools are also kinda expensive for the average John Q off the street...

I also think most people greatly underestimate just how much creativity is required to make a good movie, or how hard it can be to direct.