Quote Originally Posted by Soulburner View Post
For example, you have a landscape with a bright sky but your foreground is in the shade. You expose your shot for the landscape. Your sky will be blown out without a polarizer. Expose for the sky, and your landscape will be underexposed.
Not exactly, graduated filters have been doing this for years before photographers were using photomatix and adobe photoshop.

And I'm not saying it IS gimicky I'm just saying that in enthusiast and professional discussion groups they are rarely posted and are generally considered gimicky.