Sad to say I've read that shit more than once and I'm always like wtf are you saying???? They try to frame it like "it's OK at the start but pros don't use it" and... say you've never talked to a pro without saying it 🙄

this take itself suggest that person saying it isn't really that advanced both practically or in theory 😭

Oh gods, I remember this argument. My reference boards might look a bit ridiculous (shout out to PureRef), in part because I have no mind's eye, but the amount of times I have to correct someone else's lighting on a piece because they didn't bother to use references is a non zero amount.