AI "art" feels soulless because basically always there's very little thought and effort put into it. Some people have experienced so much low effort AI media that their default response to it is just "this is bad".
There is of course interesting thought provoking art you can do with AI, but oftentimes it isn't.
Code on the other hand is supposed to be effective, so it being "soulless" doesn't matter.
Also relevant, people value art because it evokes feelings. This means that something just looking nice isn't the only or most important piece of art.