This is total BS! Every modern movie with good practical effects uses CGI. Even movies like Top Gun Maverick, which get marketed on their impressive practical stunts, replace almost everything in the shot with CGI. Even if everything is covered up with CGI, the practical footage helps VFX artists make the CGI look real.
There's also how things are designed to mesh with audience expectations of how reality looks. Sometimes what looks realistic, isn't actually realistic. This happens with CGI, it happens with practical effects, and it happens with writing. I've heard critiques made for decisions that track better than what people expect. It's all an illusion, at every step of the process. Violence cannot be used non-lethally; modern VFX always incorporates computer generated effects.
It's not only cheaper to do things this way, it's more ethical/safe, AND it looks better. People don't have to get injured or die, animals don't need to be harmed, and you get to see shit that couldn't be done before computers. Saying "instead of CGI" disregards the labor of artists, when 9/10 times, time constraints and poor upper management are to blame.
