Yeah, that is the part I don't get... when people call BIAB a "stepping stone" to AG, they clearly don't know the different variations. I could easily have a 3-vessel system but choose not to. Where is the loss in flexibility? I'm either naive or just don't understand.Sentiments that BIAB is inherently inferior to 3-vessel brewing, or a step before graduation to 3-vessel brewing, contribute to the mythology and tend to provoke a response. QED
If the answer is that it's the same, then BIAB is just another variation of all of the other ways AG brewing is different from one brewer to another (fly or batch sparge etc.) and we should leave it at that.
Brewing is a funny hobby because there are clearly right and wrong ways to do things, like sanitation or temps for pitching yeast as examples, but so much of the process is left up to us to decide that we are bound to have these kinds of discussions.
I bet if everyone in this thread met up and shared a few beers, it really wouldn't matter how each of us brews.