OK, as one longarmer to another... tell whoever made you feel that way to not bother bringing their tops to you to finish!!
I pantograph.
I free-motion.
I even custom sometimes.
However...
I know of some people who only meander/stipple on their longarm because they are TERRIFIED of trying to do a pantograph.
I know of some people who only let the robot do their quilting - they don't FMQ, they don't panto, they don't do any of it "in person". Just "the robot".
Are either of these two groups of people "less than"?
No, NO, NNNNOOOOO!
And neither are YOU "less than"!!!
A pantograph, properly chosen to complement the "theme" of the quilt, is a beautiful thing. It often becomes an "I Spy" type of thing for the recipient.
Speaking of the recipient...
A charity quilt recipient, such as QOV, or Project Linus, or Quilts for Kids, will not look at a quilt and say "oh,gee... hmmm, that's just a panto". No, they're going to say, "OMG, how beautiful! Look at the sewing/stitching (we know they probably don't know our terminology)! Look at the fabrics! Look at this GIFT!!!"
As has been said many times, there are no quilt police.
Unfortunately, however, there ARE some quilt snobs. These are usually some of the same people who years ago said that a quilt made by machine (machine pieced and/or machine quilted) weren't "true" quilts.
As one longarmer to another, I salute you!! A well-done pantograph is a beautiful thing!!