Heya, I saw your comment in the Improve Your Writing Board and I had to follow you because I totally agree. Sometimes I feel like I'm shouting myself blue in the face trying to argue that fanfiction can actually be very worthwhile and interesting and well written but so many people just don't want to hear it! I would have said something in that thread too, but after about the fifty thousandth time, one gets slightly tired of going over the same arguments.
Nice to meet someone who gets it though, and who understands that following a passion into fanfiction isn't a 'waste' it's just where you've been inspired and what you want to do. I also think that writing a decent fanfiction is a lot harder than it looks.