'Vectors are theft!' How often haven't we heard that mantra? It's on the verge of
being annoying; vectors aren't theft. A trace is theft. Now, what separates a trace
from a vector -- a trace is mainly something that is taken from the show, and put
out as 'art' with no alterations; a vector is original art, or vectors that have
taken reference from the show, but can be their own thing.

Taking reference is what we do as artists. We have the creativity to make something
new, but without a reference, what we make will come out as being not plausible.
Generally, if you want to make something realistic, you need reference. Say, you want
to draw Twilight? Go ahead, do it now, just from memory. Will she look exactly like the
show-style? Maybe -- highly unlikely. Your brain doesn't have enough storage place
to store that knowledge all the time.

I'm not defending people who purely steal vectors, by tracing, not at all. I'm with you. It just needs to be said that you can't make anything new, if nothing old exists.
Designers and Architects are the most obvious ones that look at reference a lot, since what they make will be seen my millions and millions of people; it often even have to see the test of time.

In short: An artist needs reference. Vectors are some of the most used artwork these days
and not just in regards to MLP. There's lots of vector artwork out there for other things
as well.

That was my little rant, so just think about it.

"Creativity is allowing yourself to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep."
~Scott Adams

"The Romans were not inventors of the supporting arch, but its extended use in vaults and intersecting barrel shapes and domes is theirs."
~Harry Seidler