Great article and I agree 110%!!
Many year ago I designed valve amplifiers, long before transistors and chips. Even now I get guitar players ask me to design and build them a valve amplifier because they prefer the "depth of sound" the valves give. Personally I cannot tell the difference, but I love doing it and exercising the old skills that are almost redundant now.
My belief is that the image is created in the mind, heart and brain: the camera simply captures that image for us.
Happy New Year and may 2011 be a great photographic year for you all.
As they say - With a Canon you can, but with a Nikon you WILL!