There are definitely levels to the ethics of AI in general and vibe-coding in particular... but I think for me mods for games you like feels like maybe the least bad? It still has issues around training and sourcing of input, and part of the associated environmental impact of training.

But on the other hand the game was already proprietary, and most modders don't make a career out of it, and there isn't the same kind of "maintenance" as a normal project, and a busted mod isn't dangerous to society, so those parts of the ethics don't apply as cleanly. And there is something nice about the idea that some random person who likes this game, and has an idea about how they'd like it even better, can tweak some other company's game to better fit their desires.

I've been a professional programmer for like 20 years, but I don't think I have the bandwidth to learn how to mod each game I like individually. I've never written any mod for any game, despite having made (gamejam) games before! So if we could hypothetically solve the input problem, I think people having the freedom to personalize their gaming experience from what Microsoft provides is kinda nice. But that's obviously a big thorny "if" 😛