Well said, Pete. There is no status quo on how HDR is "supposed" to look, when it is "supposed" to be used, or who is "supposed" to approve of it being used a certain way.
And in the spirit of pull your head out of your assedness...
HDR is no different than dark room post processing techniques used during the days of film. The father of photography, Ansel Adams himself, was very well known for spending a lot of time in the dark room dodging and burning his photographs to show the full tonal range of light available. If he were still alive today, you can bet the farm that he'd be doing HDR, because it accomplishes the exact same thing, only digitally.