Generative AI is obviously more fun and productizable than classification, recognition, and recommendation AI, but is it also more technically and philosophically significant?

I personally think yes. In fact I think generative AI subsumes those other categories. All intelligence is generative

Delver at contraptions.venkateshrao.com, running summerofprotocols.com, host of /gloom ☀️

You can ask a generative AI to classify, recommend, or recognize. The reverse is not true. GenAI is a qualitative level up, not yet another application category.

This checks out, at least by analogy: 
We attribute more skill to creators than curators

The deeper truths of reality are like a stone henge shrouded on a mist-covered mountain... The truth is written in the.. cairns, the feel of the wind and the silence... We return to this world of illusions and invisible energy using signs to try to represent that wordless other dimension. Can AI join us in that labour?