I turn mostly dry wood, domestic and exotic, much quite hard like lignum vitae, bloodwood, ebony, and dogwood, some quite soft such as basswood and white pine, often smaller things, sometimes quite small, often with delicate detail.
Roughing and shaping large hard wood blanks does seem like an appropriate use for carbide tools. For finish turning, especially delicate detail in smaller work, not so much. With wood prone to chip and tear out, not so much. Long thin spindles in white pine? - I'll pick a sharp skew.
My opinion: There is plenty of room for simple carbide tools in the woodturning world. But if a beginner resorts to carbide tools simply to avoid or delay learning to sharpen and use the traditional cutting tools he risks slowing his advancement towards the level of expertise needed for much fine work. If possible, first become expert with ALL tools then pick an appropriate tool for the task at hand.
BTW, just this afternoon I returned home from a week with a half-dozen expert turners, hanging out with wood artists Clay Foster and the other John Jordan. When in an evening discussion group I brought up the subject of using carbide turning tools there was spontaneous laughter. Hmm...
JKJ