I also believe, however, that "less" sometimes is indeed "more," and there are places that minimalist engineering makes sense.
This is the sort of thing I tell my daughter - "Just because you can, doesn't mean you should".
I like indexed shifting, in its' proper place. I enjoy it thoroughly on my late 80's Miyata, which came with friction FD and indexed RD. It is a reliable, well integrated system. But I have no problem with the friction shifting on my older Mondia.
The bigger issue for me would be the placement/type of shifters. Stem shifters are right out - I don't like 'em there. DT shifters are what I'm most comfortable with, as that is what I've been using all my like. I have a newer Trek 2100 that has STI, and while I freely admit they are convenient, they take something away from the experience for me. Also, I constantly worry about all the cheap little bits inside, and fret endlessly about whether the next shift will be the last.
John D.