[egypturnash]

If you're hand-crafting sprites there's a good chance you're using a palletized paint program, which makes changing a character a matter of two or three clicks.

Also there are major stylistic advantages to drawing it by hand. Check out the baked-in motion blur on Sonic's feet in this sprite rip of Sonic 1: http://www.spriters-resource.com/genesis_32x_scd/sonicth1/sh... a while back there was a 2.5d Sonic game, and its motion had a lot less impact because no attempt was made to replicate the motion blur.

Plus of course if you're just drawing it you don't have to worry whether or not it actually makes sense - a lot of the more stylized cartoon characters are VERY hard to build spot-on 3d models of, because they're full of weird abstractions that only make sense in the 2d plane.

And finally, some people just don't like modeling stuff in 3d.

(I'm an artist and ex-animator.)