Purity of Medium at Edward Winkleman

Edward Winkleman's excellent blog has an open thread regarding the trend in photography towards digitally manipulated imagery. Gursky's work appears to be the progenitor, but recent upstarts such as Loretta Lux, Beate Gutschow and Anthony Goicolea have been proving its more than a fad.

...there's a strong parallel I've noticed between pure of digitally altered photography and oil versus acrylic paint. I've witnessed also painters who winced at the idea of giving up their oils make all kinds of excuses later for making the switch. Perhaps it's all about efficiency, but I suspect it's also being repeatedly told the general public can't tell the difference anyway, so why make your life that much harder.

My own thoughts are in the comments over there. Guess where I fall on the issue?