What do you have to say about Vectoring then?
Vectoring screenshot and such.
Let's not forget the famous DA post making itself look so terribly ignorant by saying that copying is good, even good artists did it , like Andy Warhol!

I agree with you on some points , but I differ on the ' I do think that its helpful for beginners to practice and get the hang of things.' since most of the time , when copying some one elses already pre-made artwork, you don't really understand what you're doing , you're only seeing the surface without any knowledge whatsoever about basic things like <anatomy, perspective, how the body bends,etc >

In my opinion none of those options are good and are a pure dishonour to the artist, referencing , on the other side ,is a completely different thing.