1. That rather depends on the thing varying and whether it's important or not. Further variation can act to obscure rather than improve things that are interest

1. That rather depends on the thing varying and whether it's important or not. Further variation can act to obscure rather than improve things that are interesting. For example having a thousand unique leaves under a tree is probably not interesting in a game where they are incidental. Likewise having a thousand slight variations of orc isn't really purposeful. And having a thousand very different looking creatures that all act the same is boring and confusing. Which is why I talk about meaning. For an example of proc-gen variation with purpose look at things projects like Ultima Ratio Regum. 2. I'm not sure these examples are skin deep to be honest in that I don't think it's just the visual variation that makes these comparisons interesting. There's some underlying meaning being glossed over. For me the majority of AI generative/artistic projects just create facsimiles. They lack the spark of human input and often only really create mild interest when they get it through hand curation.