I really enjoy generative AI and think that we're better off with it being in the open than controlled by specific corporations.
I also think this is an absurd comment. People are already making deepfakes of classmates, coworkers, etc. and sharing them around. I'll ignore the ethics of generating them for your own personal entertainment, but I can't think of any argument that you could make that when they start getting shared that this isn't "bad in any manner" - obviously this can cause emotional distress and damage to someone.
I find your distinction between altering and creating to be ... a sidetrack. But okay, let's pretend I said "Deepfakes is just the hype word for digitally altering or creating photos/videos".
Large institutions/etc have definitely been able to create novel "photos" from scratch for a long time now. It was just a lot of work, which is why it was restricted to large groups of people with lots of capital. Now even individuals can do it. And that's good. The idea that prior to deepfakes that photos could not be created is not supported by my lived experience since the 1980s. Just look at any hollywood movie.
There's still something about the scale of effort that seems to change this, though. For example, even if a government could hire people to produce a fake photograph, and even do so in time to use the photograph for some political manipulation, I'm not so convinced they could do so with a video. Even considering that large organizations could already do this technically, the ease of function that this allows is pretty worrying, though I do otherwise think it is a good thing that this technology is "out of the bag", so to speak.
Unless you're reversing your prior point and now talking exclusively about only deepfakes that alter existing video (like face replacement) and not about novel created from scratch video. The face replacement stuff can almost look real.
Think of telephone scams, and now apply deepfake versions of a family member to it. Imagine your 70yo aunt having to deal with knowing if the whatsapp audio or zoom call that sounds/looks like you is really you.
I don't think this was possible before, feel free to prove me wrong with some evidence.
In the past to find the right person to imitate someone elses voice you'd have to do a lot of casting trials/etc that would cost a lot of money. So it was restricted to only large corps, governments, institutions, etc. But now any human person can do it. And that's great.
I can think of several ways that these types of technologies being easily accessible to anyone who wants it directly leads to bad things.
There's good things, too. But come on... Not bad in any form or manner?