When I spotted you topic here, I expected to see MANY people beating up on you for not getting an Instructor; that is what happens alot. But I think that your attitude is right. I personally have NO problem with someone learning on their own, as long as they are a long way from other people
I think an arguement could be made that the reason why nobody is beating up on him is because the experienced folk have gotten tired of responding to these types of threads and choose not to respond!!
I personally used to respond to these threads more for the sake of the "other" newbies reading then the guy who started it because that person has already made up their mind.
Quite frankly put who cares whether you learned on your own or with an instructor. I think the whole point is to learn not how you learned but each to there own