"Brand damage" is a pre-2020s way of thinking. Brands are openly degrading themselves for short term results now and have found that it's sufficiently tolerated.
just to point out that if consumers tolerated changes, then by definition, there isn't brand damage.
what that tolerance level is cannot be know with 100% confidence ahead of time and I would argue that a business should have principles that build long-term customer value (and hence business value) rather than being short-term focused.
I used to write my search query in search terms, now I write it as an AI prompt.
If anything they should be throwing more money at it right now to get people hooked, then use a cheaper model later once people have already incorporated it into their workflows.