I'm not sure you've actually addressed his concern. I think the ability to use one (in an engineering sense) and get seemingly good results is separate from th

I'm not sure you've actually addressed his concern. I think the ability to use one (in an engineering sense) and get seemingly good results is separate from the issue of fully utilizing them. You are likely better off using a much more hands off tool that requires little knowledge of the underlying mechanism (to his point, d trees and svm).