It's ruining it for me if I have to dodge selfie sticks and migrate my way through a hoard of tourists too busy paying attention to the photos they have just taken on their phones.
If you find being around people ruins your vacation, then perhaps you should stop taking vacations to places full of people. The world is full of isolated places where you can be alone.
Being around people doesn't ruin my vacation, being around people with their phones and selfie sticks out does.
Sounds like you have a problem with selfie sticks (as do I!), and not picture taking. I take a lot of pictures on vacation. Between my iphone and my dslr I might have 1-2k pictures taken over 2 weeks. Many of them are the same picture with different settings as I 'play' around. I always pay attention to what is happening around me and am considerate of others.
This is just an issue of not going to the usual tourists-infected places in high-traffic seasons though.