I believe Shkipin confirmed in a tweet that the illustrations would be reworked. No idea if this was caught in time to change the first printing, or if it will only be changed for the second run forward. Also no word as to whether or not they will be reworked with/without AI. I suspect they will, given how prolific Shkipin is in the AI/NFT front, but I hope WotC will take a closer look at things to prevent that from happening.

Yeah, we do something similar in one of the campaigns I play in, and it’s a shitload of fun, and kinda takes the sting out of what is likely to be an inevitable death. We don’t grant inspiration for it, we just use it as a fun RP moment. Definitely helps flesh out characters and things that wouldn’t normally come to light during a campaign.