Hi Barako :)
For your characters in games, I believe you can choose to whether draw them yourself or use the character generator in rpg maker or buy them from other people, which you choose is your choice, nothing can be perfect as hard as we try, there will be always people liking and disliking what one can do regardless if it is a game, a youtube video, anything people can make.
If you feel that you want to draw characters yourself then it is a good idea even if there might be mistakes :)
Making maps can be difficult at times that for sure, as long as you like how it turns out that what count whether you use default rpg maker tilesets or not.
The games you make as to please yourself first and since you let them free people cannot complain either if they do not like them.
Good luck on that new version of Barako the pirate :)