The process might be the same, but the brewer is not the same. You've let a machine take command of important parts - eg. maintaining mash temperature. You also make no mention of your knowledge of the design of the system, What, for example, was that particular diameter/height ratio chosen for the Grainfather. Its important because optimal mash tun ratios are different to boil kettle ratios, and single vessel systems combine both. People who have built their own systems have had to wrestle with these issues, made decisions, make mistakes and learned. Do you know? Perhaps you don't care (and that's OK - I don't know why the engineers at Toyota chose the particular compression ratio for my Camry. But I don't pretend to be Stirling Moss). A craftsman cares about his equipment as much as his recipe and processes.
The point I'm making is that craftmanship in brewing, like anything else, is about what you as a person bring to it. It is in your attitude and your ethics, the sense of value you place in living your life on your terms (not living the life someone you don't know has programmed for you). As I said earlier its a sliding scale. To pursue craftmanship to its ultimate ends we would all be growing our own barley and capturing wild yeast. But I just think it is important the brewing process retains as much of its craft base as it once did when we brewed our beer after boiling our socks in the laundry copper.
