Personally, I hate the idea of not doing something because there's idiots out there who will fuck themselves up on it. The current gen of AI might be a waste of resources and the whole concept of the goal of AI might be incompatible with society's existence; those are good reasons to at least be cautious about AI.

I don't think people wanting to have relationships with an AI is a good reason to stop it, especially considering that it might even be a good option for some people who would otherwise just have no one or maybe too many cats for them to care for. Consider the creepy stalker type that thinks liking someone or something gives them ownership over that person or thing. Better for them to be obsessed with an LLM they can't hurt than a real person they might (or will make uncomfortable even of they end up being harmless overall).