I have a network of sblogs in addition to hand written ones. On the handwritten ones we often start off with a feed and then rewrite the text. Can't say I notice a much of difference as far as traffic or sales between the two.
I just started a mainstream blog that is all hand written and original content. It's less than a month old so too soon to tell how well it will do but so far
it is getting listed in Goolge regularly.