It's definitely a horses for courses thing. I've seen the whole media management thing across various platforms and product portfolios. For example, in the videography world Avid have exceptionally strong media management tools. There are always pro's and con's to each side of the coin.
The media management database and tools offer great and unique ways of cataloging and version controlling your media, as well as typically offering platform independent collaboration tools. My Aperture and iPhoto databases are readable by all my Mac applications (I think it's integrated more into Finder than it is an individual application, although individual applications can take that integration further if they so wish). It's also backed up on my external drive in the same way the rest of my folders and files are.
If I wanted to move my images from Aperture to anywhere else then I can use the Finder and the search utilities I specified earlier or simply "Save As.." to the drive. They are all available - nothing is kept under lock and key in a proprietary manner and non-accessible. I do like the fact that all the changes I make to an image in Aperture for example are non-destructive. There's no overwriting of the RAW file. All of this is achievable through how the media is managed within the application.
I definitely see the benefits of both approaches. Some will never like the media management tools. Some will embrace them.
Pick your poison
