There are a number of artists of important stature such as Jack Chambers and Andrew Wyeth who have used signed and numbered limited reproductions to augment their output to the public. These are often realist in style since this style is more difficult to render in original print techniques. Also, some museums are accepting reproductions as part of their print collection. For example, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has two of Roger Tory Peterson's limited and signed reproductions in its print collection. Finally we come to the market, which seems to to be the main motivation for the furor.
Market still relates to supply and demand.
There must be many thousands of original prints emanating from all of the schools and artists in Canada each year. However, some artists produce work of great artistic merit or popular appeal or both. If the supply of their work is limited the market will be brisk. Some artists have chosen to have their paintings or drawings reproduced with high quality technique in a limited edition. None of these artists, to my knowledge, has ever claimed that these prints were other than printed reproductions of existing works of art.