On the other hand, being practically married to a woman who is a classically trained fine artist who already has a difficult enough time making a living from her work, it saddens me that the consequence of this is further diminishing her ability to make that living.
This causes a reduced perception of the skill involved in actually creating original works. And it reduces the already small market for original artwork.
Historically, artists have always had to have a patron sponsor them in order to pursue their artistic inclinations. While it's hard for male artists to find this today, chances are that your wife already has access to guaranteed patronage if she's not in the mood to learn a more economically relevant skill set.
You are right about patron sponsorship of artists though. And thankfully, she has developed her skill to a point where she is not reliant on selling her work exclusively for income (in fact, she is an entrepreneur who has opened her own private studio for teaching).
The fact remains though; while I appreciate the low-cost nature of the "product". I hope anyone who buys one of these realizes that it is not a real work of art (outside of the virtue of the original photograph) and that there is in fact real (and more) value and real (and much, much more) skill that goes into making true original oil paintings.