Is it excessive photoshopping?

An article in Pressefotografforbundet recently debated on the use of Photoshop on RAW images in photography, and whether the disqualification of a series of photos  were justly dismissed or not. In my opinion, after looking at the photos, I have to side with the photographer. Ok, so there is a remarkable difference between the RAW files and resulting edited images, but the photographer hasn't added or removed any objects, airbrushed or cropped out subjects. He's purely played around with exposure, contrast, saturation and various levels. What the article does show, is that even the most mundane and badly taken photo is savagable if you know how to use the right software... makes me want to go through all those discarded shots sitting on my hgard drive and start post processing...

An example of the disqualified photos below. Click here to read the full article.

This....

 

to this...