do you think the oft-pornographic engagement with modern-day sexy media is exactly equal to looking at a piece of art in the Louvre? is Rule 34 just one big art project?

No, simply pointing out the obvious - that millennia's worth of sexualisation didn't yield the effects we have seen develop only in recent years.

but it certainly is the effect

This is where we disagree; I believe it a symptom, not the cause. Given that tame, wholesome and even modest characters are subject to the same treatment, and that "pornography culture" is a thing to begin with, I'm not sure attractive characters are deserving of my ire or removing them would be of any benefit. Where do you draw the line? How does that extend to film and other media?

Most sexualisation I've seen in games doesn't reach the level of what was common in film or literature growing up. Back then, it wasn't a problem. Amongst people of my age, it still seems not to be. If I were pressed to choose between an android in a maid outfit and the wholesale promotion of degeneracy at a household, institutional and state level, I'd be inclined to assign blame to the latter.

but my enemies don't like this porn

That was intended as a separate point. Simply put, I don't see Lara Croft or 2B, in their original context, as porn.