I feel it builds character.
not to mention that it avoids making one feel like a total ass for talking at a non-sentient
thing versus even a being that can't do more than meow, or bark, or just ruffle his or her feathers back...

If we ever get, during my lifetime, to a voice interface that can understand ordinary natural language
and talk back in something resembling normal, conversational speech, (or if, God (seriously) forbid, I were to become quadraplegic before I could off myself instead), I might reconsider my utter lack of interest in such things... I've played around with speech recognition for text input a bit, but even that's pretty damned boring, and as long as at least my dominant hand is working properly, pointless, imnrho. I didn't even bother reinstalling the copy of Dragon NaturallySpeaking (sic?) I bought on clearance at one point when I re-installed my OS the last time...