I’m not following. People may prefer cheap to expensive but that does not mean they are desperate.

The option isn’t just cheap or expensive therapy. No therapy is as much an option if the therapy quality was 90s level machine chat bot.

Why is it exactly a problem that people have an extra avenue to better mental well being?

Believe it or not AI results are doing fine, which is why people use it.

Yes they will produce some funny/tragic results that are both memeable and newsworthy, but by and large they do what they are asked.

If the results were poor you wouldn’t have adoption and your AI problem is solved.

We have had chat bots since the late 90s. No one used them for therapy.

For some people, paying with their data is a lot cheaper than paying for therapy or religion. I do not fault them for this, especially if they are getting similar results.

Why? Is it somehow better to go to an actual church or pay someone to confide in?

People using technology to fill a need on the company’s funds is not the worst thing in the world.