Do you think there is a reason Garleans can't use magic?

[Jandor]

Except Eorzeans DO use magic on a day-to-day basis. There's the obvious ones like people using crystals for crafting and aetherytes for traveling. Even though most people who aren't the WoL can't travel with the aetherytes repeatedly over great distances, the lore book says that all settlements are built around them. And it's been awhile so I can't remember all the details clearly, but I thought I remember the ALC storyline telling us that all Eorzeans can and do manipulate aether for mundane things like lifting heavy objects. That would explain why we can wield such gigantic weapons and go head-to-head with giants, even if we weren't the WoL. In addition to that, all DoW abilities also are said to be done by manipulating aether. Not everything to do with aether is "magecraft".

I'm not sure crystals for crafting counts to be honest, we typically harvest crystals, I don't really see why that would be beyond the Garleans. They have little ability to manipulate aether but they're not allergic to it or anything.

In-game, the Garleans' lack of aether manipulation is treated as a major disadvantage. It would be one thing if it was just "Oh, they can't be mages." but it's not treated that way. The reason the Garleans are located where they are now is because every race and tribe from across Ilsabard kicked them across the continent and unless every one of them had an army of mages, it would make more sense if the deciding factor in the fights against the early Garleans was the fact that the people they were fighting augmented their fighting ability with aether. It would also explain why the Garleans are so big, they have to be large and strong in a world where every living being in the world can manipulate aether but they can't.

But it's not though, not really, I can't remember a single instance of someone on our side thinking dealing with the Garleans will be easy because they can't cast magic.
It's treated as if it was a major disadvantage because once upon a time it was. It's not now though, the Alliance doesn't meet with the Emperor and be all "lol dude we gunna streamroll your army because we have thaumaturges and arcanists."
A focus on technology has made the Garleans just as strong, if not stronger, than the magic using races.

For the analogy.
You have to actually know how to draw to do it electronically with tools as well (therefore bunk comparison unfortunately). Medium makes no difference. It's more like them observing others drawing and having Machine learning do it on their behalf. Where it can do things similar but still can't perform certain feats an artist can, but it can do things that may come off as "uncanny valley" when it does perform certain feats eerily similar.

A photograph is not the same as a Painted Portrait. One can learn to take a photograph in an artistic way :P

I don't typically like analogies, they lead to exactly what's happening here where people argue over the analogy rather than the actual subject.

It's like Garleans can't use magic, so they invented magitek, which is not only just as good but arguably better.
The magic advantage of the other races has been rendered moot, as evidenced by the fact the Garleans have conquered everyone around them and built a continent spanning Empire.