BryonD, with the DC issue cleared up I think we're not that far apart on our characterisation of skill challenges.
Now, fix the issue of mechanics control the "pace" (to use your agreed to word) and I'll concede.
Well, to my mind this is where the real difference in preferences is. Obviously I can't speak for you or for Raven Crowking. But it seems to me that the logic of the "fiction-first" approach is that pacing is a consequence of ingame reality.
The logic of skill challenges is that metagame pacing concerns are imposed on the ingame reality. If you don't like this I think you'll find it hard to like skill challenges. I think you'll also find it hard to like 4e combat, because 4e combat has taken out all the sorts of things RC referred to in his post upthread that meliorate the "mechanics first" in AD&D combat. In 4e combat, hit points, AC, to-hit bonuses and so in many ways resemble AD&D, but rather than an attempt to model the ingame reality they have been designed as pacing mechanics.
Healing surges are the same, in my view. The most distinctive thing about healing surges isn't that they come back after each day's rest - this could easily be houseruled without having much impact on the mechanical balance of 4e, although it would of course affect the strategic play of the game. The distinctive thing about healing surges is the effect they have on the pacing of combat - as the combat goes on, the players find ways to bring their reserve of surges into play, thereby getting the upperhand on the monsters, who run out of hp and can't replenish them.
4e is the first version of D&D, I think, where there has been deliberate effort made to tailor the mechanics so as to support particular metagame pacing goals.
