What's your take on the role of editing in enhancing a photograph's impact?

I have to preface my comments with my personal idea of editing photography. I strongly believe that any alteration of original work, is a distortion of reality, skills, interpretation and ideas. So I personally usually avoid any type of editing, improving of my original work. 

To avoid editing exalts the skills of the photographer in catching the right moment, using the right light, creating the best composition and using the potentialities of the camera. It forces to be more creative, to enhance skills and results in more satisfactions and better shots.

Of course editing may be the direct consequence of a customer request: eliminating a portion, person, object that is not needed, correcting the balance, enhancing the colors and so on. Of course any customer's request needs to be fulfilled, but for personal photography, editing does not belong to my work.