Something to remember is that the Threadiverse runs on unpaid labour. Someone donating their time to create art is no different to someone donating their time to run the server or develop Piefed ot whatever.

There's unlikely to be any exposure from the art anyway, so any artist should only do it because they want to contribute to the ecosystem not because they think they will receive exposure in lieu of payment.

This is only ever a problem when the thing they're being asked to do for 'exposure' is normal paid work. In this context nobody is being paid, their work isn't enriching someone else, they would be contributing like all the lemmy devs, the server operators and everyone else contributing to the operation of the site. Nobody's approached a specific artist and requested they do this for 'exposure', someone’s simply suggested that, oh hey, like everyone else that contributes their time to the site, maybe an artist would like to contribute theirs as well.

Pull your head out of your arse.

I'm asking for the image to be replaced, and suggesting a way to do that. If we do that, and if there's compensation, can be a later discussion.

Are you offering to raise a collection?