comes off as being patronizing
As does telling people off for overexplaining stuff when they've been asked to explain what they did in more detail. This dude is new, he doesn't know exactly what we want him to tell us.
(gah - hit the post button too early, more of what I meant to say here)
Colour conservation is important not because of filesize but for, uh, dicipline reasons. Pixel artists do it because it gives cleaner work, or maybe, because that's how it's always been done. Which is pretty much all we have in pixel art. Tradition and discipline is all that distinguishes it from, say, oekaki, or anything somebody made in paint.
Anyways, what I want to know is, why have you traced this, (understand that tracing is basically tantamount to high treason on any art forum) and why didn't you tell us you'd traced it, outright?