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Graffiti itself is one of the most obnoxious forms of IRL individual artistic expression, while also being the most positive form of littering. I view billboard advertisements and similar to graffiti, but those are rarely individual, usually consensual, and are systemically designed to be constrained and unoffensive to onlookers while graffiti tends to maximize both.
However, both are much less pernicious than someone who regularly litters trash over a similar area, even if it is less "showy." But people tend to ignore it on an individual level for that reason as well, and it gets less emphasis reaction/prevention despite actually blocking paths/sewers and being even worse for pets/local environment. So relatively speaking, I consider graffiti a problem, but a relatively minor one on its own to many other problems associated with it (gangs, truancy, parents letting kids do as they please, etc.).
If it weren't for graffiti actually taking decent effort to remove, I'd compare it directly to ASCII/SJIS art: It has a relatively low barrier of entry to other forms of art, most who use it do so unoriginally or with low-effort, it's inherently spammy in nature, and too much of it where it isn't desired discourages other posters; but it is also a legitimate means to express creativity, while having unique constraints and styles of expression.
