It's all apples to oranges really. 500 dollars here, 2000 dollars there, Everybody knows that your car is what you put into it. Opinions are fine, nobody can fault you for an opinion. You dislike small displacement motors, fine. It's when a person carries their opinion over to ignorance that you start to run into problems. The no replacement for displacement argument is ignorant. The replacement is F/I, car companies, and car enthusiast alike have been replacing displacement for years.
Is it better? Well that's a loaded question, but for allot people, yes, it is better. Especially in these times. All I'm saying is, I hate to see people bash a honda because they feel that the displacement of it's motor makes it an inferior modding platform. Look into how much a b16, or an h22 swap costs. You might be surprised at how easy/cheap it is to mod one of these little hatches. It doesn't take tons of horsepower or torque to get a 1300 pound car down the track at some very respectable times.
EDIT: And if you're a GTP owner, and you're using the no replacement for displacement argument.....You need to read your owners manual. Turns out, you've been replacing displacement this whole time, who'd a guessed.