I see this argument made about macros and about add-ons and it's absolutely ridiculous.
Both macros and add-ons aren't all-empowering devices as ideas - the problem occurs when restrictions occur as to what they can or can't do. Rift, for example, went too far as to what their macros could do and the spells in the game complemented the design so that an iwin-button could be made using macros. WoW went too far during WOTLK and Cataclysm in what their add-ons allowed for, making some of the more challenging encounters trivial.
Both were the result of a lack of restrictions on the API rather than the feature themselves. TOR wouldn't suffer from the ability to merge two buttons into one to save space on the UI nor would it suffer from the ability to change the size of buffs/debuffs if people want it.
Mistaking a terrible facet of a feature as making the whole feature terrible needs to stop.