Also with respectful disagreement: If people preferred an artificial voice to a real one, American I-Dull would not be the cultural phenom that it is. It's not used on Britney and Ashlee and Hannah and so forth because that's the "sheen" sound the producers had in their head - at least not at the start - but simply because those gals can't sing all that well.
Granted, now we're in a derivative generation that says "let's use it because that's what Britney and the lot sound like, and we wanna be copycats and get our piece of that gold rush", but that's not exactly being innovative or creatively enhancing anything.
I can understand and agree with you that any tool that changes the sound of something can be used creatively for purposes other than what it was originally designed for. That is a valid point.
However, I see vocals as being a somewhat different story. Even if one's pitch is spot on and they can carry a tune with both hands tied behind their backs, the whole idea behind regularly or consistantly using an effect to change the timbre of the voice is still an indication that the vocalist is not doing their full job.
You're into punk and pop punk. Did Joe Strummer or Joey Ramone need any Autotune sheen? Not exactly a couple of Luciano Pavorottis there, quite the opposite. Yet they knew how to deliver without any digital crutches. In fact, now that I think about it, since when did the punk sound - even the neo-punk stuff - ever have anything to do with conforming to anything popular?
G.