do we only care about "industry plants" when we don't like the music?

this is something i've been thinking about for a while, because the term "industry plant" gets thrown around constantly, but people seem to apply it very inconsistently.

a lot of artists technically had label connections, wealthy or industry-adjacent families, major marketing pushes, curated images, or otherwise opportunities most aspiring artists will never get. but for some artists, people treat that as normal industry behavior, while for others it becomes this huge criticism that supposedly makes them inauthentic.

for example, people often accuse ice spice or tate mcrae of feeling overly engineered or label-built very early into their careers. meanwhile artists like billie eilish or taylor swift also had strong industry support/systems around them, but discussions around them focus much more on artistry and songwriting legitimacy.

i'm not saying these artists are equivalent or that none of the criticism is fair. i just think people draw the line in very different places depending on whether the music resonates with them.

so what actually qualifies someone as an "industry plant" to you? or has the term just become shorthand for "an artist whose success feels undeserved to me"?