i think that it's important to point out that engineering a track and arranging a track are two completely different things, but they are being conflated here. if you want to compare a recording of techno to something else, it should be a recording of something else, not the other thing live. i think it's better not talk about engineering at all, since a classical guitarist obviously is going to pay an engineer to help him record anyway...

now, as for arranging, with techno, some of the performance aspect gets transfered into the arrangement, which is different than "real" music, but nonetheless, some pieces of sequenced music will be more expressive and "musical" sounding than others, just as some performers are more expressive than others using real instruments. having played the guitar for 10 years before getting into techno, it's my opinion that to be able to get that human feel into a sequenced piece takes vastly more talent than it does when playing a real instrument (where we really can't help but play out of time to some small degree), and it has nothing to do with using the trendiest engineering tricks.

look at squarepusher. his tracks sound good even when they sound bad, because they express a feeling, and i don't think it would be unfair to call him a "virtuoso" programmer.