I'm with you, it takes a good "eye" to produce better designs with clip art, but I still recognize elements as clip art. However, I don't care either; if it looks good and the customer likes it and will pay, then it's perfectly valid. I did a DTG job recently for a family going on a vacation; they had a fish name, so I got a $10.00 fish from Shutterstock, set some complimentary text around it, and they loved it. I didn't spend over 20 minutes putting it and the back together. It takes the aforementioned "eye" and skill and experience to put the elements together in a "wow" kind of way...
Steve