Sounds like your mates know a lot more about engines than you then, lol

The VTEC engines in general are amazing bits of kit, massively over engineered, and in terms of N/A engines make great torque, HUGE horsepower, massive rpm on tap.

Whats not to like?

If you are comparing to a turbo, then obviously you are just being a bit of a knob as thats missing the point.