> If you don't want your image looked at, don't put it online. The only problem here is the lack of a reference.

This is an incredibly toxic take. If I as an artist, want to share something I made with the world, but don't want others to take something I care about and claim it as something that they created, so they using their popularity can sell my work. My only option is to not share it with anyone?

It's the artists fault that midjourney is duplicating their work! They should never have created anything if they didn't want some one else to do <bad thing>!

I'm of the strong opinion that all information should be free (secrets excluded). I also agree with you that there's nothing wrong with using public information for training data, but the only problem isn't lack of attribution. And victim blaming isn't the answer to the question.