Does an academic paper need graphics? I recently received feedback for a university-intern seminar paper where the reviewer implicitly stated, that every academic paper needs graphics.
The paper was in the field of computer science.
I am aware, that graphics can contribute towards understanding an issue, however, for this specific topic I stood before the issue that

Graphics I would have liked to use are copyright-protected, thus no option
I am a bad drawer
There seemed no fitting option to add computer-aided drawings such like diagrams (in terms of content, I do know how to use Latex)

Therefore, I concluded that I would not include any graphics in my work.
I have encountered several papers on the internet, that also included no graphics. Plus, naturally, mathematical papers would often also not need graphics depending on the topic, with computer science being an applied case of mathematics.
Are graphics in academic papers a real requirement or should I consider the feedback as a subjective need?
In (sufficiently) theoretical fields, such as theoretical computer science, parts of theoretical physics, or mathematics, it is completely fine to publish a paper without graphics.
Whether in the case of your specific paper, topic, or field graphics would have helped is a different question, and essentially impossible to answer here with the information given. On the other hand, if it is a field where papers with no graphics are reasonably common, there should be not a big issue in convincing the editor that graphics are unnecessary.
Note that similar arguments could be applied to other things, like examples, applications, etc.: Nice to have, they likely don't hurt, but not needed in sufficiently abstract fields of research.