The Marvel Method demolishes this poppycock, of course, but there are still some writers who are able to play upon the ignorance of the fans sufficiently that they can maintain at least some degree of the myth.

I also think that the decision to draw backgrounds depends on the pacing of the story the artist is trying to achieve. If you want the story to read faster then after you establish where the scene takes place you don't really need to draw in the backgrounds unless of course something about them is pertinent to the particular panel. However if you want to slow the story down then adding in the backgrounds which in turn adds more detail in a panel will slow down the readers eye usually because there is more information to take in. When drawing fight scenes to keep them moving and fast backgrounds can sometimes be eliminated unless once again they are integral to the panel as in someone is getting smashed into them or something.

Creatively subordinating backgrounds and the use of white space as a graphic device are wonderful tools for an artist to have in his quiver, especially when pulled out sparingly for greatest effect.  Far too many guys try to ape what they have seen other more skilled artists do with these devices, and often have weak, empty and lackluster pages as a result.

Re Neal...his GL/GA work is often held up and hailed as great (with good reason), but I prefer the work he did on X-Men with Tom Palmer (#56-63, 65).  Check out the work he did on the Living Monolith/Sentinels issues...genius.  Those two were a perfect melding of penciler/inker IMO.