You’re coming at this from a theoretical approach, which isn’t appropriate for deep learning because nobody has any idea how or why these neural networks actual

You’re coming at this from a theoretical approach, which isn’t appropriate for deep learning because nobody has any idea how or why these neural networks actually work. Generating a bunch of rotated and stretched versions of your labeled images DOES work, and very effectively. Why? The neural network is an inscrutable God, we just have no idea.