I'm sorry, but I can never get this type of comment. It's not like you're growing and, more importantly, malting your own grains or growing your own hops. AG brewing just has more steps, and yes more options of course, but all in all you're still producing beer, and hopefully great beer.
I can understand this type of thinking when we're talking 100% pre-done kits like pre-hopped canned kits where you buy the whole thing and use exactly what they include (ie. kit & kilo). THAT is much more like baking a cake from a box where you just add water. But for me, I design my own extract recipes with several mixes of ingredients (extracts, grains, adjuncts, etc) and various hops for bittering, flavoring, and aroma. So when I do my recipes it's nowhere near dumping a box of powder and just adding water.
Not saying those were your words, and not in any way arguing AG vs. Extract. Just saying I can't get that comment and I feel it's a bit narrow to think of it in such an over simplified way.
Rev.