Your 100% correct. The way I look at it is this. A cert says you have the ability to learn, not necessarily the know of how to do anything. I have seen plenty of "paper certs" in my time, and each one is just as funny as the next. I know a guy who is starting at VZB in a week or so. He just got his NA, has no experience, and got hired. To me that is a poor decision on managements part. You could easily take someone like me, who at one time had their NA, and also has 5 years real world knowledge, and I could be more successful and a quicker impact than the paper cert with no time in.
Rememebr the NA is simple switching and routing. It doesn't get into Border Routing, or really any Layer 1 applications, SONET, DWDM, CWDM, etc... I wasn't thrilled when i took the NA to begin with, and spending 125 dollars now, just doesn't seem the route i wana take.