The fewer image-library companies that exist, the less people there are out there choosing, commissioning, and collecting. Where once you had a small choice of many variations, you now have a near-infinite choice of little variation. But the time is coming when it may be worth investing in home-grown digital images. Those pics are all yours, no one else can touch them, and you'll certainly stand out from the design crowd. It's time that graphic artists remembered what artists do.
Real artists create, invent and originate.