So I think you undermined your own argument completely.
Your perspectives are not incompatible.
It's very very easy to pay attention to only a handful of user agents, and from what I can see, right now that's trending towards 2-3 desktop browsers + "mobile" (which usually means "the iPhone and maybe one or two Android devices").
Essentially you either focus 100% to design and implementing the design via any available technologies (cross-compatible or not) or settle for 80% (20% loss of design and vision from effort in ensuring compatibility).
Ultimately it depends how passionate you are about your design. Personally I would rather have 5 people absolutely fall in love with and be moved by my design/interface/experience rather than 100 people being able to simply 'view' it.