It's stupid because the game has already received a stack of awards a mile high. Nobody seriously cares about this. Nobody's sales will be hurt in any meaningful capacity. It's a dumb awards show, not the FCC.
People are going to use the tools available if it leads to quicker development cycles to get a product out.
I think this "placeholder art" is a silly line to draw. But the high profile of the game makes it a ripe target to make a statement.
If you really don't want to reward people for "quicker development" over the human touch, might as well pick a game everyone already bought and highlight folks who did their dev work organically