DNR is different than what Lowry does, keep in mind. He's not railing against Lowry, but DNR. Digital Noise Reduction just smears the image to create the illusion of smoothness. Lowry actually doesn't destroy information per se--though Lowry should never be used to destroy grain, unless it is dupe grain. Lowry is a dirt removal algorithm, and dirt, generally speaking, is not part of the photography but foreign substance physically attached to the film through age/use and deservedly should be removed--its basically a more gentle way of running film through a cleaning bath. But it can--and has--been abused to remove grain that is part of the photography. Generally though, Lowry and other clean-up software of its type are our friend--it should not be confused with DNR, which doesn't solve anything.

Not to take away from the general sentiment--this anti-grain thing is perplexing and frustrating. Film should not look like a digital rendering because its not a digital rendering, its film. Grain looks beautiful IMO, just like an oil painting looks more aesthetically pleasing that a crystal-clear digital photograph of the same scene--disagree if you like, but its an aesthetic element to motion pictures and it should be respected.