"It has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except all the others that have been tried."
-Sir Winston Churchill
This same principle applies to color management. As annoying and limited and imperfect as it may be, it beats all of the alternatives hands-down. Applying standards to camera captures, monitor images, and prints may not always yield perfectly satisfactory results by default, but any alternative based solely on guesswork and manual tweaking is certain to be worse.
I agree with Jonathan wholeheartedly.
One wouldn't expect to hear high-quality Hi-Fi sound from a pair of 2-inch speakers. Anyone knows that it wouldn't work. Yet, too many people want to play around with ICC color management while refusing to use the tools and techniques that are necessary for those purposes (including calibrated and profiled monitors and output devices).
I say: lose those clients who don't defer to your knowledge and expertise while attempting to reverse the roles by trying to tell you how they, in their proud cluelessness and quite arrogantly, want things done. They will blame you for the inevitably bad results, while never taking responsibility for their own stubborn refusal to do what it takes.
You are better off with clients who will let you do your job and trust your competence, integrity and dedication to their best interests.
