OH, I absolutely agree that lazy communicators use email too, and they should think long and hard about their bad habits as well. But the idea that email isn't a valid tool for communication simply flies in the face of reality, your friend's years of experience notwithstanding. His experience is also the opposite of my own years of experience. For every truly botched written communication I have observed, I can point to a dozen or more worse cases when verbal communication was the mode of choice.
Any communication can be botched, but when you want clarity and ownership of ideas, written communication is infinitely preferable. Before email it was memos, letters, and finally faxes. Email compresses the time needed and increases functionality while respecting the time of the person on the other end, which to me is its greatest asset. (For example, you and I would not have ever made time to have this conversation personally, but we are doing it as we find bits and pieces of time without interrupting our own priorities)
Time is our most valuable resource, and I suggest that anyone not using email for communication at every opportunity is wasting a lot of their own time and that of others. To point to a few glitches in the process as a justification for abandoning its benefits is, IMO, a cop-out.
Besides, I want to use face-to-face time to schmooze and for interpersonal contact - not for exchanging basic business information or getting technical details worked out.