Plenty of people who use AI to write get paid to write. The bar isn't "used AI" vs "not used AI," it's "does the author make the point succinctly in a way that is entertaining" which, IME, is not something that AI can one-shot. The fact that so many people found her writing entertaining and meaningful means that she either prompted the LLM well enough to elicit those emotions, or she wrote them herself. Regardless, she succeeded in her goal.

Oof maybe I'm losing my ai-dar. This didn't rub me the wrong way on phrasing.