There's definitely a middle ground here that we perhaps don't have a good word for. E.g. what do we call a painting made by an artist who sat in front of the scene they depicted, vs. a painting made by an artist from their imagination? There's certainly some sense in which the first one was an "authentic" scene.
That said, props to them for calling out the limitations so clearly. I really appreciate it when people are up front with the problems like that.
Intentional
Contextual
Everything about this project goes against the meaning of authenticity.