An image of an archeologist adventurer who wears a hat and uses a bullwhip

This isn't surprising in any way is it? And it just goes to show that no model will ever be a box from which you can trust the output isn't tainted by copyrights, or that you don't inadvertently use someones' likeness. It's not a copyright laundering machine. Nor will it be used as one. "But I used an AI model" isn't some magic way to avoid legal trouble. You are in as much legal trouble using these images as you are using the "originals".

Yeah I don't really understand what the thesis of this article is. Copyright infringement would apply to any of those images just the same as if you made them yourself.

I don't think it's possible to create an "alien which has acid for blood and a small sharp mouth within a bigger mouth" without anybody seeing a connection to Alien, even if it doesn't look anything like the original.

Your second paragraph may be true, but the mere abstract presence of those features wouldn’t infringe copyright.