Blurring the lines

[Isaac]

It's similar to a painter who paints in the photographic effect of bokeh - it may sell more paintings, but it is a photographic effect that, as a photographer, I find rather amusing when I see it in paintings.

Did you stop to wonder why a painter would do such a thing?

"Film has been the most influential visual art form for a few generations (perhaps now beginning to be superseded by games), and has given Western populations a very specific visual vocabulary. It would be foolish to ignore it…"

A Brush with the Real: Figurative Painting Today, page 36

[LesPalenik]

Essentially, it comes to terminology.
If a distorting optical filter or a slow shutter speed is used to drastically change what the photographer saw, it is quite legal and acceptable for competition judges and photo reviewers to call the resulting image a "real photograph".  Some call it even art. However, if you apply any software filters, the outcome becomes merely a "picture".
 
The important thing is that Joe The Plumber can install both kinds on a wall.

[luxborealis]

Essentially, it comes to creativity.

"A painting too real"

Whether the digitally manipulated images surprise and delight.

Yes, that's it - creativity - and Eric Johansson has it in spades.