Model collapse is an induced phenomenon, not something you'll ever see in practice. Of course naive predictions of an impending 'collapse' go back to at least GPT-3 (that's over 6 years ago), yet models continue to get smarter. And speaking of predictions, I assume you've been saying that AI is "fake" for just as long?
I use AI for coding regularly. It's not fake. Just most aspects outside of the coding are looking to be a net negative on humanity if we think comprehensive and critical thinking are positive aspects of the human condition.