In fact, part of the problem is how you would even begin to try measuring skill in artistry.

I did try to address this with them, but it did not get resolved. The direction they were going had to do with critique, and how one should strive to give criticism of art that follows specific guidelines of medium and asthetic. Kinda reinforces what you say about it being "artistic intellectualism"; buncha fancy theories and words when it really is fine to give simplistic criticism, and that the most an artist should expect is for critique to come with an explanation of some kind. Ironic, since they bemoaned academic gatekeeping.

I might even go as far as to say that low skill art is a little more artistic. If I go on Deviantart, it's not very interesting, but it's a bunch of technically good pictures. If I look at some literal children's drawings, sometimes it's very interesting. I wonder if some capacity for creative self expression might be sacrificed during the pursuit of technical skill. At the least, a person with low skill will be forced to lean on creativity and innovation, where a high skill person would just use a polished technique.

wolf t-shirts

Hahaha, this example troubles me. I consider those to be cringey because of the people who get really enthusiastic about like, the spiritual significance of wolves and such. I understand your point, though, I think. Some of the base terms I still haven't really internalized/memorized, like "aesthetic". Probably gonna have to refresh some philosophy stuff to get that done. So I can't really agree or disagree with the part where you say design can be good while having no asthetic.

Instead, intellectual property has to be asserted by the state in order for those property rights to exist, meaning that intellectual property is a positive right.

Hmm. Is there some way to determine whether something is a right? If government support of IP magically vanished right now, we'd definitely still have people who believe it's a real right. I am also reminded that whenever lefty slogans pull out the "human rights" card, that it's very unclear what rights are being referenced.

The manifestation of ideas into property makes sense to me, but I don't think that ideas themselves are property.

There's a, uh, large esoteric essay I'm working on that asserts a lot of things about the properties of ideas. So I can't agree, but I can't really make a coherent argument against it. I realize now that my hobbies are leaking out a bit, so to speak. I will need to be more mindful of this in the future, as opportunities to discuss IP as a concept come up.