Im not a purist about photography (through I wouldnt be upset if I never saw another cartoon-like HDR shot

). I just like to know that what Im looking at is - substantially - real. And when I see a heavily manipulated pic like this, I no longer believe that this event happened/these people ever existed/this landscape was actually there. Once photography loses this aspect of there-ness, it loses 90% of its meaning too... including the trust of the viewer in what hes seeing. The image becomes all surface and no depth: stripped of the validity of a documentary photograph, yet without the emotional charge that a painting might provide. That is... the worst of both worlds: neither true, nor interpretive... just technique. The effect is to make all the pictures look pretty much the same...
Just my opinion (and worth as much as you paid for it)...