I'll start with this: My 30 year old daughter can heel and toe, drives a stick daily (taught her hubby) and is pissed that the new FourRunner she wants can't be had in a stick. I love that kid!
Anyway, I think of a simple fuel injection and a carb in similar terms. The carb has an assortment of analog memory devices (jets and venturies and floats) that remember to let in a certain amount of air or fuel for a given amount of vacuum downstream and at different air speeds. I tell it what to remember by selecting those analog components. If I make a mistake I need to tell it to remember something different by replacing, adjusting or cleaning the analog memory piece. If I don't select well I have a nightmare (garbage in, garbage out).
A simple FI moves that memory function to a digital storage device (a chip) and it will remember what to do at a given vacuum and engine speed, air temp, etc. just like a carb remembers, however, I tell it through a laptop. (In this simple system the "high level" control of the throttle is still in your foot's hands...sorry, couldn't resist). If I don't select well I have a nightmare (garbage in, garbage out).
Both systems can fail for similar reasons. A dirty jet or injector, clogged fuel filter, bad sensor or vacuum leak, so on and so forth. Maintenance is maintenance and tuning is tuning, it's just that the FI requires a little less of the maintenance and allows a little more fine tuning. It can also remember more in order to deal better with varying conditions like altitude and temperature, etc.
That's where my line is, a simple Fi system is better for me. A full major manufacturer system doesn't require me to figure anything out and they do concentrate on drivability when programing the ECU, but they don't define drivability the way I define drivability. They slow throttle reaction because you couldn't have possibly meant that request (it'll spin the tires!) or because it's bad for emissions. For 99.9% of what is done with cars by 99.9% of the public that's a really good thing because it can remember what it's been told faster than the average bear can remember what he's been taught. For someone trying to snap off a crisp heel and toe under trail braking so they can manage the weight shift to help rotate the car...well it can get in they way, especially if it's also tied into the brakes and differential. Porsche and Ferrari and others have shown that you can tell the ECU to remember how to be helpful in those situations, but Subaru and Volkswagen, etc. don't really care about that 99% of the time. They're concerned with passing government regulations and keeping us in our lane when we're behaving incompetently behind the wheel. Judging by what I see around town, that describes most driving.
Part of the joy of our chosen hobby is that we can decide where we each want to draw the line. "You do you," as so many here have said. It is the way.