Reading more into it, it must just be the "Booster" that is made out of corn sugar. I use sugar to prime for carbonation in all my beers, so that's no sweat to me--I'm too impatient with the longer carbonation times for DME, and haven't seen any ill effects from sugar.
I tend to shy from making the recommendation just because if his dad is serious about getting into brewing its a better idea to buy equipment that has more use down the road. I also hate to think of someone being turned off of brewing if Mr. Beer gives you sub-par results... But I agree, if you go into Mr. Beer knowing how to do it right, I suppose you can do okay. In fact, I'm tempted to buy a completely off the wall kit and brew it just to see what it is like.
I have co-worker who does no-boil or minimum boil brewing with her fiance , but then again, I've never actually tasted her beer, so I don't know how it turns out. I assume its okay because they still do it.