Maybe I didn't make this clear in my question, but I have no opinion on how to learn the guitar, I'm no expert and certainly not a teacher. I am walking down a path that I think will work best for me, and I am happy with my current progress. I think there are great guitarist from both camps. Like maggior said they are just different paths to the same place. I do find the hatred of classical training by a small minority a bit odd, or when I have heard things like "just listen to music you like and play, learning notes and scales are waste of time". If you are gifted enough to do that great, but I don't think it is the only way or even preferred way to learn for most people. To be fair, I feel the same way the other way, when I hear people discourage people that aren't classically trained away from what is working for them.
Discussing this with my wife, an accomplished violinist in her own right (who dislikes the suzuki method), she said something I hadn't thought of. That there is something inherent to the guitar and the piano that makes a more intuitive feel style learning possible, and that is the linear lay out of those instruments. with the frets or keys being a semitone apart, one can find the note fairly easily if you can hear the interval. With the brass and woodwind instruments those intervals aren't as intuitive or easy to see. This is also partially true but somewhere in the middle for the non-fretted stringed instruments. So maybe there is something intrinsic to the guitar that makes that style of learning more possible.
Again thanks for the various opinions!
