I'm not seeing this as a fight, and feeling vindicated doesn't mean I see it as such - If I said "won" or anything like that, maybe. The vindicated feeling comes solely from feeling alone in my wish for D&D to fundamentally change its ways. It has nothing to do with fights.
My claim all along was that D&D is not newcomer friendly. As I said before though - Yes, you can, in fact, get new players into D&D and they can actually have fun. I did it as well - Almost all new players I got into the hobby was through D&D. But it's harder and requires a lot more work from the introducing party than other, lighter and smoother, systems. I'm, for one, am sick of having to tell new players "Yeah, just ignore this for now" or going into long explanation once they finally ask me some rules questions and seeing the look of utter confusion in their faces. The fact people here, including me, managed to get people into RPGs through D&D or Pathfinder is just as relevant as how amir0x's group failed to get him into RPGs through D&D.
And if you don't have a good group to get you into the game, you do have to read hundred of pages. You have to. If you're just 4 friends, all new to RPGs, who want to play together? Good luck. And that's how most people get into the game, not through existing groups.
Also, I don't have a problem with rules or liking them. Sometimes, I'm quite fond of rules - Hell, I'm a huge 2e fan! But I keep selling rules light systems because they are rare in today's RPG landscape (though becoming less and less so, thankfully) - And it's maddening how much maintenance RPGs require of its players. Sure, rules can be cool and useful, they could also help get people into the game as you said, but I find that they cost much in term of play speed and friendliness. That's why I was excited about the fifth edition I thought we were getting - A simple, rules-light basics that you can expand with more rules as you wish? Best of both world.
Basically, I'm looking at it like this - In the age that everything around you is about intuitiveness and ease of use, RPGs have failed to keep up and make themselves accessible. Not just for new players, but old ones as well. In high school I could play 4 times a week, now I can barely afford one session a week and if a sixth, or even a tenth of it is spent on stuff that are not relevant, that time sink hurts.