How about the school that says that cloning out a major element of an image is one step too far in manipulation? Veracity tends to have a virtue of its own.
Oh, no, not the "photographs are the truth" debate, again. That really is trolling, in my opinion.
Is your comment limited to saying just cloning is bad or are you saying all manipulation (including altering contrast by adjusting film development or paper selection or Photoshop) should be outlawed?
With respect, I consider it would be unfair to hijack this thread with a discussion about acceptable limits of manipulation and I encourage you to start a new topic on this issue.
Until your post, members were discussing removing a particular element from a particular photo. If you want to debate the ethics of doing this, I consider you should do so in a separate thread.
Roger