All fiction is pretend, if we're going to get technical about it. The entire franchise is based on people pretending that turtles are ninjas.
I'm of the opinion that a story being done by a fan doesn't inherently mean that it has no value, just like something being canon doesn't necessarily mean it's great (e.g. Volume 4). At the end of the day, it just comes back to whose pretending has been officially licensed and whose hasn't. Fans can do great stuff and sh*tty stuff, just like official staff. *shrugs*
To get an idea of how much classic literature is technically fanfic/was based on someone else's original works and how blurry the line can get, you can check out this list here:
http://bookshop.livejournal.com/1044495.html
Though to bring this back to the thread's original point, I didn't fully understand what the OP was trying to say either.