The entire Photography Series is worth reading (but the edited books re-released in the 80s, not the originals), but book 2, "The Negative" that focuses on the Zone System Ansel codified based on prior work by Fred Archer is really crucial reading for a strong technical understanding of how camera exposure works in a scene with a wide dynamic range. This is critical when working with film, especially medium format and large format films, but is also helpful to produce much better images even with modern digital cameras. While things have consistently gotten more forgiving and thus easier for photographers, having a really strong technical understanding of the principles of light and how cameras expose film/sensor is still one of the most useful things you can learn as a photographer, even as an amateur.
Going in a completely different direction, I also think Simon d'Entremont is a photographer worth paying attention to. He's a professional wildlife photographer and Youtuber who has invested a lot of effort into simplifying the techniques and technicalities that come with using digital cameras. He has an understandable approach, a high level of technical competence (e.g. what he says is correct and opinions are clearly stated as opinions). By learning the core technical principles of photography and then adding onto it the specifics of digital photography, it can make any photographer better, both from the perspective of the images they capture and from the perspective of how they get there (e.g. learning a "feel" for exposure settings for a given scene).
Completely separate from the technical aspect, I think Annie Leibovitz might be one of the most important photographers to pay attention to in the last 50 years. She has a deep understanding around the art of storytelling through photography, and ultimately a strong photo is not just one that is exposed perfectly for the scene and captures the full dynamic range and makes the best use of light. It's one that captures something interesting and tells a story about it. Nobody does this better than Annie. Both in her portraiture and her photojournalistic work, she captures subjects in a way that truly emphasizes the meaning behind "a picture is worth a thousand words."
I have no opinions around generative coding, but I consider myself a "good" amateur photographer, and these are three photographers I've studied in depth to try to understand and build my own style and increase my technical competence and the quality of my outcomes. Also, not for nothing, both Ansel Adams and Annie Leibovitz preferred a Contax rangefinder for much of their work (although Ansel is most famous for his large format work done with a view camera). It's sad Contax doesn't exist anymore, I'd loved to have seen how they would have come into the digital/mirrorless age.