I copied a lot when I was younger as part of the usual process of learning to draw, then at some point in high school I kind of cracked it a little as I was being told that it was literally the only way that anyone could possibly ever become good and there was quite simply no other option and basically you were proving yourself to be an arrogant idiot if you even thought otherwise (alright it was not actually that insane, that was just a very exaggerated impression that I got that I know full well is very exaggerated XD).
Then at some point some of my friends were the type where if you did digital art of any sort and you didn't make absolutely everything yourself from scratch (including any custom brushes in some extreme cases) then you were cheating (and this was coming on top of people who still to this day think that "the computer is doing it all for you").
Now I find it hard to copy anything up to and including tutorials x_x (I can copy the process onto something else but following along the actual lesson feels like a mission)
Did the exercise help? :D
That's an odd experience, I found the opposite, that the dominant opinion was very much against copying and all about drawing from life and imagination. To me, building proficiency takes a mix of drawing from life, drawing from imagination, focused doodling, and copying other artists. But my own experience growing up was 100% drawing from imagination, which i feel left me underdeveloped in a lot of areas.
I was exaggerating a lot, the high school class emphasis on "copying" was a lot of master studies XD we did do a fair bit plein air and still life as well.
As a child I copied a lot because all my drawings from imagination sucked x_x but I still tried because copying couldn't get me drawing what I wanted and I wanted to be a comic artst so...
I became a 3d artist instead
I think no matter how much you do for how long you're always going to feel underdeveloped in areas XD