I know my stance is weak, and I was in a worse mood last night. I totally see what you are saying! All I have left is this: what do we tell teams like mine? When a prize is on the line, and one team makes original art that takes time and thus they can't make as much, but another team uses ready made assets that they get to spawn in with, how can we compete? The prize is the sticking point for me... I have been a solo programmer before and I see why assets serve a role and shouldn't be banned. I suppose in the end, if I was hosting my own jam, I would include a rule saying that the art must be original. Since that rule is not present here, I will yield.
Oh and "hand-drawn" was poor phrasing on my part. Although my game featured actual paint-on-canvas assets that my artist scanned in, what I meant to say was created by a human, within the span of the jam. The game I reviewed just before this one had like really rough MS paint sprites and I found that infinitely more charming than these super polished assets.
Thank you for forcing me to clarify my point with your response!