About the passive aggressive part, I can understand that. Though with all of my internet experience, I've learned to ignore the personalities of many who have made a name for themselves online. It's a bit like looking up the biography of an actor you like, you're greatly risking being disappointed or even disturbed.
As far as tedium, I don't get it. Without GregTech I can get a quarry up and running in a matter of hours. That quarry would provide me with everything I needed to start building creatively, but it would take a long time so I might as well just play in creative mode unless I have something to make it more interesting. Having GregTech installed, while increasing the time it takes to start a quarry, that pales in comparison to the intermediate goals it provides for me while the quarry is running. Now I could still start building creatively, so its not like it nerfs that option. So I can't really understand this one fully, but I'd like to hear more. What is it that non GT users do in that time? I don't mean that argumentatively either, I'm always looking for new ideas.
The complexity of the recipes (number of steps), I guess I can understand this one too. AE certainly does make it a lot easier and I do like it that way. Why? Because I still get the experience of creating the recipe the first time, but I also unlock the ability to essentially skip a few steps the second time. That said, while AE is an acceptable counter to the issue for me, simplifying the recipes would not be. I like the feeling of work = reward. Something has to to the work, whether its a system I set up (AE) or me crafting it part by part. So yes, I agree that AE and GT work well together.
EDIT: Another classic DarkWasp wall of text fan rave about GregTech.
Sorry