Yes there is a lot of talk about manipulation, fixing photos, etc, but as we move into the digital world more and more, there is a need to do things to images, much like what is/has been done in the past with negatives etc as well.

I think of Photoshop as just my darkroom that I use to adjust miages, like Lionheart has said, correcting images to see what I did wrong to improve my captures to help cut down on the time needed to adjust images due to my own missgivings and not the cameras or lens that I used.

Photography to me, is an on going learning process that changes given the conditions we are taking the image in at the time. No time is exactly the same, at any given time and unless we are gods, we take bad/not so bad/acceptable/good/really good/excellent images in no particular order.

Photographers that take excellent/exceptional images have done so, through much trial and error in their past, guideance along the way from others. Some are just born with it within them, much like a pianist is born with the ability in them to excel at piano.

The darkroom was/is used by many professionals to enhance their images they just didn't talk about it as much as what is discussed within digital imaging, which generally requires some sort of adjustment first up, even it is is just a white balance and unsharpen masking to sharpen then image a bit, especially if there is no in camera manipulation done post capturing.

Anyway, that is how I see it.

The old ways are good, but I think the new era in photography is just getting better and better every day.