Honestly, it's true. Those types are liberal activists first, twitter junkies second, and artists THIRD. I even admit this as an artist belongs in that crowd myself.
That demographic that you're talking about would throw you under the bus for any little reason and they will think that it's a good thing. There's a good reason why a lot of their porn games are unfinished prototypes. They're interested in burning bridges than cooperating.
You're better off learning art yourself.
He's not wrong though. It's the same reason why animators tell you to draw outside instead of drawing cartoons. It's because you could simplify real things in any way possible, whereas if you're only drawing cartoon you study hard to get that particular look and feel limited in what you can do.
>Conversely having inspirations outside of vidya isn't a guarantee of a good game either, in case you haven't noticed that's actually a lot of the thinking behind the walking sim genre. Developers who want to do games about the 1988 Yellowstone Park Fire or some 90s Lesbian Romance Story, because they think they're being so bold making games about things games aren't normally about, only then to fuck up at the "actually making a game" part.
That's equivalent to using "posting on social media" or "breathing air" as an inspiration. They don't require much action like skating, shooting, or base jumping