If you are fine with it, just as if it's the preference of this fellow, great.
To me, as I too grew up with friction only bikes, and cars and motorcycles with manual chokes that one had to finesse to start and run, I'm fine with an extremely reliable system like indexing.
I also like it simply from a speed and performance thing, sure and fast and exact shifting .
I fully agree with you.
I think the three most important bicycle inventions in the past half century were (not in any particular order).
- Indexed shifting for rear deraileurs.
- Flashing red LED taillights that did not have bulbs that would burn out.
- Rear freehub hubs that replaced the old style freewheel hubs that had fragile axles.
I do not understand why some people choose to forgo indexed rear derailleur shifting and prefer friction, but when they make a choice based on past experience, I will not try to convince them otherwise.