I would say, "there is a difference between martial arts and fighting," which is what I think you mean. If that is what you mean, I agree. But I would also say you can't be a good martial artist if you don't also fight, even if only under practice settings. Those practice settings must include bumps, bruises, blood, a good amount of pain, and very likely cracked or even broken bones. If you are not defending yourself from real danger, you can't learn the craft.

Perfect practice makes perfect. You can't have perfect practice without an opponent that is trying to hurt you in earnest, even if they aren't trying to hurt you bad.

Thus without some level of the "sport" aspect of it, martial arts is just slightly above useless as a form of defense against any attacker with any meaningful measure of skill.

I would say, "there is a difference between martial arts and fighting," which is what I think you mean. If that is what you mean, I agree. But I would also say you can't be a good martial artist if you don't also fight, even if only under practice settings. Those practice settings must include bumps, bruises, blood and very likely cracked or even broken bones. If you are not defending yourself from real danger, you can't learn the craft.

Perfect practice makes perfect. You can't have perfect practice without an opponent that is trying to hurt you in earnest, even if they aren't trying to hurt you bad.

Thus without some level of the "sport" aspect of it, martial arts is just slightly above useless as a form of defense against any attacker with any meaningful measure of skill.