Yep. That image is just the conduit, serves that purpose, the result of a set of emotions that creates a need for communication of another set of emotions which in return hopes to enlicit or educe a further emotional/coherent response from the viewer. I think that is the real reason behind non-documentary works (& even some of those whose primary purpose is to record the pedestrian & 'real' faithfully) not the work itself but the thoughts that resulted in its creation & realisation & the sum of the reasons why it was not created differently.
(What's paradoxical about the abstract is: how can one gauge sincerity in the abstract? How can one discern when there is sincerity & when a work is merely aping a sincere work for visual effect? Does it matter? Since both were created by a human 'feeling' mind... for another thread,.. I know
)
Not quite sure I understood how your anecdote relates to the theme(s) in the article Kaitain - but then I have not read it in a while & vividly recal the section on OS interoperability & not much else.. Did you find the time to read it?
They also have a interesting one on hack threats found using Google.