Lee you have obviously put a lot of thought into this, so kudos for that effort.
I would point out a few things to you however:
1. Any particular scene is what it is, and I suppose for the casual snapshooter that points a camera at said scene and presses the shutter button could be viewed as non-artistic expression... BUT...
2. The tools of a photographer consist of lens choice (which goes a long way in deciding perspective), DOF choice, shutter speed choice, and last but not least the composition itself. Example being one guy snaps a shot of a waterfall and it is somewhat documentary. Another "photographer" studies the scene and decides where to place certain elements in that scene, how much attention to draw to that element through composition as well as lens choice, then may place further emphasis on that particular element through the choice of aperture or shutterspeed (in short, creativity with the tools at hand)... and THAT
3. Is the first place in which photography becomes an art, THEN
4. After the scene is captured, you get into post-processing. In days past what we consider post-processing now, was done in a dark room with dodging, burning, even composite images but using multiple exposures or multiple frames. More currently those steps are handled through tools like Lightroom and Photoshop. Regardless of the times, there is another element of art and creativity that happens in this step as well.
So while your particular view might be considered valid for some shots, I suspect the majority of the people you are conversing with here fall into the latter group or they wouldn't be on a site such as this. If you don't think using the principles of exposure, composition, perspective are tools of artistic expression then you are certainly welcome to your opinion but I think that view is significantly short-sighted.