My Right to Defend Fanfiction

We've been hearing a lot about fanfiction lately. I blame Fifty Shades of Grey and its conception as Twilight fanfiction. I've read some horrible thoughts on people who either write it or read it, but I think it's a bit too harsh. Fifty Shades is obviously not the brightest shining gem in the world of fanfiction (my review/rant), but I really don't understand all the hate on the concept of fanfiction.

Here are the reasons why I defend fanfiction:

1. I used to read it - One summer, many years ago, I was extremly bored and I was just discovering Mugglenet and I stumbled upon Mugglenet fanfiction. All of a sudden, I had something to do the entire summer. 

2. I used to write it - Unsuccessfully. I was twelve and decided that writing fanfiction would be awesome. I started writing something about Harry, Ron and Hermione in a cave, but I only wrote the first paragraph and came to the conclusion that writing in English is too difficult. So I just went back to reading it.

3. There's some great writing over there - I regret profoundly that I've forgotten my Mugglnet username and password because I had some great stories marked as favorites. One that brought me to tears was Harry at the grave of his parents in Godric's Hollow talking to them about Ginny, Ron and Hermione. There are stories that are witty, sad and imaginative. So what if they borrow characters from someone else?

4. Imitation is the best form of flattery - I think writers feel great when they see that someone cares enough about their work that they want to write something inspired by their books.

5. It's a great way to practice - Most of fanfiction is posted online. I don't know anyone who writes fanfiction and then just keeps it to themselves. What would be the point? If you publish your work online, you're most likely to get some sort of feedback, telling you what to do better and what you're already doing well enough. Even if you don't get feedback, you have to practice in order to get better and there's no other way to practice than to write constantly.

6. Some consider it fun - If people have fun writing it - great! If people have fun reading it - great! I don't see the problem. No one is making you read anything.

I need a better reason to diss fanfiction than it's lame.