Yes Guybell, I almost agree with you. To paint photographs doesn't make much sense - you could better photograph them. And because of that, the moment the technic of photography was invented was the moment artists like Braque and Picasso invented the cubism. But to learn to be able to paint photorealistic helps to understand a lot about light and colour, and even other things like perspective and anatomy. I think, photorealistic paintings should somehow have some kind of overvalue for the beholder. Otherwise it will become boring pretty soon.