I think it's not as much a democracy as a market. We sometimes say people vote with their wallet on products, so I see where you come from.

Still, in this case I think a market analogy fits better. There are people who want it and people who don't want it. If the people with a lot of money (to manage for companies) want it, this will move the balance. If it eventually moves it enough remains to be seen. Decisions can be made with too much excitement and based on overpromises, but eventually someone will draw a bottom line under (generative) AI, the one where currently the huge amount of money gets pumped into. Either will generate generate value that people pay for and the investors make a profit or not. Bubbles and misconceptions can extend the time when the line is drawn, but eventually it will be.

If LLM and generative is generally creates value, or not, I cannot say. I am sure that the more specialised AI solutions that are better described as machine learning does create this value in their special use cases and will stay.