I work at NASA (though not on rockets), and that's a fair assessment; I think you correctly articulated what the SpaceX employee was telling you. Aerobraking a

I work at NASA (though not on rockets), and that's a fair assessment; I think you correctly articulated what the SpaceX employee was telling you. Aerobraking and parachutes alone aren't enough on Mars, even for small payloads (less than people-sized). Just look at the MER and MSL entry, descent, & landing systems. The reason being that mass scales with the volume while aerobraking and parachutes obviously rely on cross-sectional area. Even MSL, which is an order of magnitude lighter than a Dragon capsule, requires a sophisticated hybrid EDL system. Also, although it may be Musk's goal to go to Mars, there is good profit to be made in Near Earth Objects and the Moon, none of which have much of an atmosphere to speak of.