wow!!!! a petday3 enjoyer!!!!! what a happy day ! and yes i think i agree with what is being said here, in general, people will band together and specifically share the things they like and want to make art for it because of that sense of community... we are a social species after all!! we LIKE banding together!! it feels good! and i think in a way i remember when i started making art, i thought that i wanted to make art to make people happy, to make them smile, to make them feel the same way i felt when id browse deviantart and smile at so many cool and cute furry ocs. and often contributing to fandom art makes me feel that way, because they will recognize its also something they love, it is more content of it, and it makes them happy! isnt that wonderful!

i also think that there is a merit in the idea of the transformative power of art interpreting upon a pre existing fictional work. the way im going to put this is goign to sound wonky because it makes so much sense in my head, but the gears get a little stuck when it comes to putting this out there, but basically, i kind of often times GO INTO a piece of media and its fandom already thinking of the art that will come from it. i get excited thinking what scenes or characters will be the ones adapted and recreated and drawn in cool angles or poses and all the ways peoples imaginations will run wild. i love art so much, because it allows a window into everyones little corner of their mind and what they think, it lets us share with each other a piece of our inner world. so to look for fan art to me is to want to see in a way into the mind and experiences of others who have also seen the same media i have and have their own ideas and desires about it. and on the flip side, i am excited to share my view as well.

basically, i get excited for new generations of pokemon, for example, somewhat because of the new mons and ideas, yes, but mostly because i want to see the artists reactions and what they will do with all the new muses they will get. hell, fan art is what i primarily am looking for when i go into media tags. i want an earnest peek into peoples minds, and maybe to see if they have also shared what swims in my own mind.

i am uncertain how well this will connect to above statements but recently i have been enjoying taking art seriously, regardless of "unserious" subject matter such as some of the examples you gave. i do think fanart can be worthy of examination and thought and there is often more to a piece and what the creator wishes to express than just "character". there is a reason that character is being chosen and rendered with a specific style or mood. or maybe the artist isn't intentionally expressing anything in the work but they admire the style or design sense of the subject and are trying to learn from it, in which case it would be more akin to studies. oftentimes i like to ask myself what i am expressing (intentionally or not) in my fanworks and what it says about my relationship to the original piece i was inspired by. sometimes i really just am saying "hey i like [x] a lot" which i am honestly content with, and sometimes i do end up surprising myself and am able to continue to hone in on that concept and learn more about how it effects my art. i hope this makes sense , i think all art contains a lot of thought and information just to the extent that someone put effort into making something into a visual concept others can witness. (Not that all art is drawing or visual obviously it just seems to be the main topic of this thread right now)

If you ask me, there is very much so a negative value as well in the affecting of fandom on art.
Or maybe i'm a skeptic.
Anyways, a bit of a tangent but if you fucking talk shit about modern art (saw it earlier) that is quite a stupid thing to do as many of the modern art was directly produced by oppressed communities, namely the Jewish, Black and Gay community.
I could go into countless examples, but one is an art installation of a pile of candy in which the guests are encouraged to take from. Sounds really stupid right? How can this be better than such influential "internet age scenecore animecore destructioncore art" that people pour sooooo much time into? First of all, assuming it is better because it is in a museum is actually foolish in and of itself, so that point is nil to begin with. Second of all, the original installation weighed the exact weight of the artist's gay lover before he had contracted AIDS. The taking of it is to symbolize the deterioration caused by it, and having the general masses be directly responsible and even encouraged to take from it is symbolic of the social norms and scare of the AIDS crisis that subsequently followed due to both general misinformation passed on by mere people and genuine propaganda peddled by the government.
I know you all love your silly little animal art, I get that. You don't have to even care about modern art. But do not once say that it does not have meaning. Modern art is an art that is living, breathing, not restricted to a certain time or place (Which is why I personally HATE calling it Modern Art). It is an active dialogue between the artist and the viewer. I don't care if you don't get it, the simple fact is it has meaning.