They're not wrong. That is, in essence, what it is - a little guitar, and cute.
What is interesting, to me, is the way guitarists respond to the ukulele. A few years ago, I was playing and singing in a pub, and two fellas showed an interest in my soprano uke. Both were guitar players. I explained that the uke was tuned gCEA (with the 'g' string in the octave above the other three) and thus it was like a guitar capo'd at the fifth fret.
I handed the uke to them and one immediately started strumming some basic chord sequences. He was really delighted, saying he would get himself one ASAP. He handed it to the other bloke, who was an equally competent guitarist, but the second fella found the uke utterly confusing. He couldn't do anything with it.
I guess it depends upon their mental approach to playing the guitar. If you are happy just to play basis "shapes" with your left hand, then the uke will make perfect sense. If you think about chords as collections of notes, and need to know what notes you are playing, and in what key, then it is much more difficult.
I'm a shapes man, myself.
John Colter