While I must agree with your analytical way of thinking I also think that NLP is just a tool. Everything is a mind control, our every gesture is suggestion and NLP as a tool can be used in a way that we shape these circumstances, not to be shaped by them. As every other tool, it can be used for good or for evil.
If you don't have that knowledge it can be used against you without your knowledge, complying or understanding, by other people or just by life itself.
Caution is, of course, highly recommended. :)
Yes my friend knowledge is power! Sadly all too much of it is concentrated in the hands of people who hide it and who abuse it. Thank you for sharing some of it ;)