It’s not a lusty image if nobody knows what the full picture looks like. Hence the reference to the Streisand effect.
What I’m not seeing in this thread is the reason why this picture is so over used.
One reason is that it’s the perfect image to test graphics manipulation algorithms like compression for example. It has all the characteristics you want to check for: various textures, gradients, lightening… It’s like the benchy (3d printing) of image compression.
The other reason is that once it established itself as the reference image, it was easier for researchers to compare algorithms and make sure the author doesn’t cheat by cherry picking a picture where his algorithm is clearly better.
Researchers were used to see the common pitfalls of compressions algorithms on this image (the fur for example).