really if you break it down MMA fighters ARE TMAist look at the martial arts that make up MMA striking: boxing in the purest since is traditional muay thai is def a traditional martial arts and there are guys who have done TKD, Karate, Kung fu that mix these into there striking all TMAs
MMA Grappling: wrestling just like boxing in the purest since is tradtional BJJ is a traditional martial arts, Judo is a traditional martial arts
so MMA fighters are TMAs in a since they just combine them to make up their fighting styles to make the sport we love called MMA, so there is no mma vs tma a traditional muay thai practitioner can beat an mma guy and a mma guy could beat a traditional kung fu guy it all depends on who trains harder
True, but then you could run into the argument that since they are training from a sport perspective, it loses some of the tradition the style has when trained for "original purposes" i.e. self defense, discipline, etc. Thats just my two cents on an argument that could arise. Personally, I don't consider all MMA fighters as "TMAists" because I base it off of the style they know. I consider Boxing and Wrestling sports, not quite Martial Arts. So in my opinion, I do not consider the guy who trains in western boxing and wrestling a Martial Artist, I simply consider them a fighter. But, there are few MMA fighters who haven't taken at least one traditional martial art, so that doesnt come up. In case youre wondering, I distinguish sport from Martial Art by the belief that you can do a martial art your entire life. My first tournament, there was an 86 year old man competing. He only did forms, but his form looked good. It was apparent that he was able to really keep up with training. A boxer, can't keep fighting till the day he die. I will admit that a flaw in my logic there is muay thai.
I agree with your last statement. MMA is built up from traditional martial arts, so they do have their place there. An by no means is MMA better than any Traditional Martial Art, it all comes down to training. How hard, what you know, discipline, diversity, etc.
OP, I have friends that do MMA and they've never gave me crap for me studying Traditional Martial Arts instead, nor have they shown any distaste for it. Partially, cause they understand it's what started their sport, and partially cause they understand that we're training for different situations. I study TMA's for the self-defense, discipline, and growth I can achieve. They like contact sports and getting to beat someone up

What I've noticed is that the people that bash styles, either MMA or TMA, on youtube tend to be the people who sit at home and talk about how they can do MMA without ever having stepped foot in a gym or training hall.