He’s a tracer. Which was something that a lot of people suspected but never really had any proof.
Me personally, I just never liked how he treats the fandom as a wallet, especially with, as you said, the advertising EVERYWHERE (which he has now also pulled back on, what with all the backlash). I never really cared for his art enough to notice it was traced.
Art can be a business sure, but at least put some soul into it…
I’ve always been the most annoyed by how pretentious he was. And his lack of modesty is an even bigger offense now that it’s been proven that his art skills aren’t as great as he said they were.
I don’t pay much attention to DP myself. I just saw ponies that looked traced, felt disgusted, and moved onto other things until I saw the whole thing about “we caught him do it on stramm!!!”
He’s done quite a bit that’s nowhere near okay. Selling traced work in the first place is a big nono, and someone his age (or younger) should know that. :/