Art Review! Hyper Realism

Why do artists insist on trying to make artwork as realistic as they can? Is photography not art? Is a photo not the ultimate depiction of an object? Are the artists who do hyper realism just deconstructing the subject matter? The artist uses a photo as reference 99.9% of the time so just show the photograph, why bother to paint it just to achieve the exact look of the picture?  If you are that skilled why not give us something that the world has never seen...otherwise just pin the darn photo on the canvas.

Jkp Fletcher

 Simon Monk

Tjalf Sparnaay

Doug Bloodworth

Art or not art?