I mostly agree with your point but this isn’t the best analogy because while you’re allowed to learn to draw Jigglypuff, you probably could get in legal trouble for distributing or selling those drawing if it’s not fair use. I think a better analogy is using Jigglypuff drawings to learn how to draw things like that in general and then creating your own character that’s not exactly the same but uses some concepts you learnt
Am I allowed to distribute these ROMs of Pokemon games over BitTorrent? I don't own Pokemon.
No. I answered your question, do you have an answer for mine?
you can draw it but you can't [legally] sell it without permission from The Pokemon Company. And you definitely can't start a new media franchise based on your OC which combines jigglypuff with Sonic the Hedgehog.
Right, selling the drawing is what's illegal. Knowing how to draw it isn't. These models know how to draw things. Using your Pokemon ROM logic, ChatGPT should be banned because it knows how to make Pokemon-themed games.
God created emulators for ROMs to be loaded into them.
To not distribute the ROMs would be heresy.
If you are 'learning' is nothing but taking existing drawings and storing them in an electronic format (no matter that it's a super lossy a format, for example an MP3 made from a CD is still a copy no matter how low you set the low bitrate.) then no, no you are not. Now if you learning involves training a human brain on actual techniques to replicate how someone else did something, then yes, yes you are.
A human brain compresses a lot of things lossily too.