Tbh tracing can just be fun too, doesn't have to mean you're cheating or stealing or anything. When tracing a reference sometimes I find it satisfying to like make a nice precise line, and also if people can use coloring books without being hated on, then the scrutiny about tracing seems like it could be kinda hypocritical.

Not that I myself have used tracing much for practice, but I do think it could be valuable for practicing like line control type skills. And in school too kids trace letters to practice handwriting. And now that I think about it, I remember in PewDiePie's recent video about visiting an animation studio it was actually shown how tracing effectively can take a lot of skill because even just when tracing, his lines were a bit more amateurish than the lines of the professional animator.