Bret,
No doubt some (much?) of it is as you have described, or even worse.
I have worked to preserve and rebuild a lot of this sort of outdoors art. For example
these guys. The practical problems of keeping them intact and looking good out in
the weather 365 days a year are not insignificant, regardless of your opinion about them
as art. There are two more of them, not visible from here, four total, each in a different orientation.
Difficult access and maintain, for sure.
But, this is one of the very many examples of the art found in the desert around Borreggo Springs in California.
There are a LOT of them, dozens and dozens scattered over miles of desert landscape, all different topics but
ancient extinct creatures real or imagined are a lot of them, but there are others, too. This is one of the biggest
and IMO, most spectacular. Welded up of thousands of pieces of sheet steel. Magnificent. Hard to see, but a
two lane blacktop road has this guy going 'under' it, and he has a rattler's tail to complete the amazing whimsey.
If you have a free day in the area east of San Diego, or SE of LA, it can be a fun
excursion.
Bill