I can see your point, I think it just depends on what you're looking for.

I have found CCK 100% invaluable in getting our sites up quickly, especially when I was just starting out (a mere nine months ago.) However, the biggest value has been in the fact that there are now whole swaths of our site that don't need a developer at all. We're about to launch a big project with 8 or 9 new content types, views, site-wide redesign, the works. I did nothing on it! Three months of development with no developer! A (admittedly pretty technical) designer, some business owners and artists, it is just amazing to me this is possible and frankly I embrace it. My experience has been the polar opposite of yours - it has saved me mountains of time.

Honestly, I'm happy not to have to reinvent the wheel, and leave the upgrade paths and security fixes to their immensely capable team. If the downside of that is I have to hand-edit a content copy export every three months, so be it. Well that an the UI for multi-input fields is pretty awkward. I expect CCK 6 to be a big improvement though.