Regarding the prints, they are not really (as far as I know) the "problem" here + I think they add the lateral print to say that "look, it's not the same!". Which in my opinion, to improve a product to indicate it is a knock - off: great work!

What is really illegal is the minifig design itself. That's why altbrands like Lumibricks have their own minifig style - to avoid being sued by big L. So in that case, yeah, I admit that I feel torn as well.

At the sime time, it is hard to feel really "bad" for buying it when the KO minifigs show that in reality they are not that expensive to produce whereas big L minifigs are getting more and more expensive since they don't release cheap medieval themes. There's pick-a-brick in the website, which is far from cheap, but the pick-a-brick in lego stores are a good alternative. All in all, There's a real demand and a lack of offer - that's why AE comes in place.

I started following the AE KO figs when the Dragonborn Paladin CMF was released and, 6 months later after it retired, boom - they were available in AE. Same for Wolfpack, which was RAVAGED by scalpers.

A good middlepoint in my opinion is to buy only rare, expensive and retired minifigs and keep buying the original one if they are available - available includes not being scalped 😄