Sorry but saying that SRAM is the "crudest" system doesn't really hold water at all. What do you define as crude? As you point out yourself it is just a different feel to the system, one that I and many others actually like, I never liked the "snick-snick" feeling of Shimano when I used it, I hated the even quieter sound from my 9 speed Campy shifters, I personally like the hard fast and mechanical sound of the SRAM mechanism. Perhaps you want to talk about the shifting mechanism? I have torn apart and re-assembled all three types of brifters (Yes even STI ones). All of them operate on slightly different principles. Campy actually has one of the simplest, it is essentially a ratcheted friction shifter (And I mean both front and rear shifters), perhaps that is "un-refined".

In my opinion when it comes to refined I think that SRAM has the most refined rear derailleur out there. The knuckle system is extremely ingenious and carefully designed to keep a linear pull actuation where-as Campagnolo and Shimano need to use non-uniform pulls to move their RD, SRAM uses a uniform pull. Of course that is all semantics, I dont tout the EA monicker as being "special" or some type of magical technology that makes everything beautiful and perfect. Although I do have to say that simply the more cable you pull per shift the better off you are in the end since there can be a greater amount of friction before you actually have issues. But that is all technicalities that don't really mean anything.

As for Lightness not helping, I personally don't believe that. What lighter means is that you can spend your weight in other places, perhaps on the wheels, seat, handlebars, powermeter, frame (Those new Aero-tubes certainly weigh a bit more) or brakes (I think the move to that cam-actuated brake is stupid, if it can't dead-lock my wheels I aint riding it). On top of that you need to remember that target audience is not only the Pro and racing field at the end of the day. Some people like to proclaim they have an 11 pound bike. Doesn't mean much to the pro, means something to the guy who has $11,000 to burn.

On top of all this we are essentially discussing why electronic > mechanical or atleast I believe that is the way you see it. In the end it is about shift performance from what I can gather. This I will not argue about, sure electronic is wonderfully perfect, no variance by it's nature. The fact is though is that people have been racing mechanical systems for a good long while, people have been sprinting, climbing, and shifting under load with them for a good long while. Electronic may in the future move to the point where every pro has it, and it may move to a point where it even makes it's way out of the niche market, but it is certainly not this year, and I can say that mechanical will most likely never go away.

Simply put: Electronic refines certain aspects of mechanical shifting, but a refined mechanical shifting system is still just as competitive as an electronic one at this point.