I agree with that philosophy, I just might have worded it poorly

A little clarification for this

i.e. don't get discouraged. with time and effort it can be improved to the point where zoomed in looks just as good (something I still am striving for)

I mainly post pics of my work so I can take a more critical look at it. There is a lot of stuff the camera can catch that is missed in person.

I often catch details I missed or did sloppily when I am cropping and browsing pics to post

So it is definitely a great tool to help improve

 

On the flip side, there are sometimes things that need to be exaggerated for the camera, or painted a certain way to look better in camera. I tend to shy away from things like that. For example, I try to tone down the contrasted weathering in Star Wars stuff or the contrast in oddly colored panels that almost disappeared in the final films, but had to be done that way to achieve the shot.

Since I do a lot of gaming with people in person, in some cases I paint to what I refer to as "table top" quality so it looks decent enough in person on the table

In the end you are correct, the important bit is to always try to out do yourself and your expectations in order to improve.

For example, no matter how well I may think I did something, with a short browser search I can always find someone who has done it better, and I can use that to motivate myself