Of course different people like different positions. But it seems your problem with drop bars is that you've never really ridden a *properly fitted* one. Look at the pictures in the following post: http://www.bikeforums.net/general-cy...l#post16797792, of drop bar riders with very upright positions, contrast with typical racers. If you want to argue against drop bars, don't argue because of the back/neck issues you had, because that was caused by the wrong stem (and possibly wrong top tube & head tube lengths), not because of the drop bar itself.

Apparently they didn't give you good advice, since they neglected to emphasize stem swap to get you to the reach & angle where you feel comfortable, which is of supreme importance.

You might correctly state "I can't use drop bars as set up out of the box" on most road bikes by default, but "can't use drop bars period" may be inaccurate. And it's misleading to argue for flat bars for someone else when you never even bothered trying a stem swap, you don't have sufficient experience to make the call. Would you call a bike too big or small for yourself if you refused to slide the seat up or down? More cumbersome height adjustment was the loss when threadless took over from quill stems, but then again swapping stems became a zillion times easier.