I see your point, I guess something I failed to address in the OP is that certain choices are more better suited to different RP's depending on the style (Free, Casual, Advanced, Arena, Nation, ect.) and RP theme. It can be easy for pictures to create an unreal looking character, where in a description fills in a mental template the reader/writer already has gathered from the OOC.

Additionally, in smaller or more expressive RP's, as stated previous an image can do well to convey a lot of information within a short amount of time, such as atmosphere, of course I doubt it'd ever be as expressive as a chunk of paragraphs, but I feel there is worth in the compact nature of pictures sometimes. Not because I'm lazy or anything, sometimes a picture just resonates with me in a way that is hard to replicate with words, but at that point I am looking at it more as art rather than as a character portrait.