My take is ... not really. It is indeed true that we all borrow. I had three great mentors in my early days of learning the writer's craft. Elements of all three show in my work in spite of my best efforts to exorcise them. I think the same is much more so for those who did not have personal mentors, but relied on reading, because they would eventually zero in on just a few authors they liked to read and would wind up emulating them later in their own works. If it were not for the shoulders of giants, we would not see over the horizon.

Steal is to me the equivalent of to plagiarize, whether it be verbatum or style. One of the reasons I do not care much for fan fiction.

The saying as quoted here was from Steve Jobs who said he was quoting Picasso, though nobody that I know of has found any evidence that Picasso ever said such a thing. And to be honest, Steve Jobs was a horrible human being. He treated his employees badly, stole many of his ideas, and then justified it... probably with this saying.

A more accurate version of this saying might have been written by T. S. Eliot:
One of the surest of tests is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate; mature poets steal; bad poets deface what they take, and good poets make it into something better, or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique, utterly different from that from which it was torn; the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time, or alien in language, or diverse in interest.

Notice how he's referring to "poets" not artists.

So in context, it's a different animal. Good artists "imitate," while great artists take what's already there make it theirs. An example would be any of the great composers. Beethoven, my favorite, could imitate anyone, and often did, but it was either to learn more about the composer, or sometimes to explore the ideas of the composition. Yet his Fifth Symphony, his Ninth Symphony, Fur Elise, Moonlight Sonata... they stand out as uniquely Beethoven. It was his artistry that allowed him to be so creatively.

Beethoven broke all the "rules" of music. But he KNEW the rules first.

all art is copying. try making up something you have never seen before.

Stealing = plagarism. To get paid for such seems grossly wrong to me. I would not gratify such a thief with the title if artist, to be honest.

To echo or reflect aspects of fellow artists that you admire, giving credit where it is due, could almost be considered paying homage. Such should not = copying. I can see where this can become grey, though; hence your asking.

I guess it depends on what one means by "great." I would say the one who steals might know greater financial success because they are an opportunist, but if we're talking about creative genius I have to side with the more original artist.