You can apply this to anything, though. I hope you don't drive a car because that's cheating yourself out of the reality of walking and carrying your own load. Walkers frown at cyclists. Cyclists frown at drivers. There's no doubt someone out there who is disappointed that you don't do your own plumbing. Hiring a plumber is cheating yourself out of reality.

It's not that I don't agree with it being lame, but chasing some kind of "reality" is just as lame too. Should you summit without oxygen too? Without a map? On your own? At what point does it become "real"?