I get it but it hurt coming from a person who I was so close with. It's mostly just annoying from anyone else though. It's frustrating either way given how fervently we believe in what we're trying to do, which is to approach this as a style unto itself and not a solution for realism, nor as something to be outright dismissed as a lesser approach.
Besides, stuff like Gigabots already does the "obvious cardboard buildings" thing with great success and most everyone else who tries just looks lame in their unexceptional attempts at parodying the genre. You don't see nearly as many people who actual, I don't know, give a sh•t.