But come to think of it...what the person said *is* indeed
quite true...whether you guys like to admit it or not... 

No, it's not true at all.  Popularity is not ruining anime,
it's making it so legitimately licensed, correctly 
translated, nicely transferred versions are available
for low prices to lots of people.  I keep seeing more and
more snobby messages like this on various message boards,
and you know what?  The trouble with anime fandom isn't
little kids who go gaga for Pokemon or folks like Melissa
who excercise their right to spend buckets of cash on cool
toys.  It's snobby, stuck-up attitudes like this that give
fans a bad name.

RE: Animators in the US copying Japanese styles:  So what?
Any animation historian will tell you that the "big eye" 
anime style actually got copied from Disney way back in the
day.  Artists get influenced by other artists; no one
country has a monopoly on a certain style.