Nope. Not at all.

Sure the low low end forks on bikes that cost a few hundred dollars will have crappy 'spring' forks, but thats to keep the cost low on the bike. When your talking high end stuff, different story.There are many high end spring forks out there, and i agree with your they do seem to have a nicer 'feel'.

Air forks are much lighter, which mostly appeal to the XC crowd, where as coil forks (spring forks) seem to be more DH orientated (again higher end stuff).

Then again, air forks have come a long way in the last few years and they seem to be getting used for a much wider range of riding. You have an infinite air adjustment available to you, and they are much lighter then coil forks, thats probably one of their big advantages.