No, not an unfair comment at all.
When I help friends get new road bikes, I often steer them to some of our local shops that are always doing ‘last-year’ model sales. Some of those road bikes, (like Cervelo S2’s with 105 and basic wheels) were $1800(cad). Even if I could build a bike for the same amount, I will always push someone towards the S2 as there’s just no point in going generic. Of course, there’s also the used bike market as well and that is another great route to go.
I do see the value in the bikes that I’m building up as finding a road bike with Ultegra, carbon wheels, carbon handlebars (etc.). When you add up all those things, shops don’t come close to the price that I can build it up from. …I also enjoy building/working on bikes, so there’s that too.