Great post!

Some good points are raised but:

• The style of the examples is rather bland, see https://www.subtraction.com/2018/01/03/two-different-kinds-of-illustration/

• I disagree with never using paid stock photography. If you’re not able to find good photos, you’re unlikely going to be a good art director for illustration. If you don’t want to pay for creative work because there’s so much freely available (the other argument made), you’re not considering the costs of you browsing lots of free websites looking for a good image.