This is just symptomatic of the rampant stupidity prevalent in the rpg community: "If rules don't exist for social interaction, the game does not support social interaction!" And yet, these same people try to distance themselves from wargaming as much as possible. Which is it? If you say rpgs are not wargames, then you can't simply take the RAW as "everything possible in the game".
AD&D has rules for combat, spell casting, rolling stats and making characters. It's debatable if the rules for combat actually exist as there are two contradictory examples given, one in the PHB and the other in the DMG. Regardless, SOMEHOW, all the AD&D games I've ever run or played in were replete with social interaction and "roleplaying". So the question: do "indie gamers" just have a beef with D&D and use every opportunity to diss it, while simultaneously promoting other games that are based on D&D? It's eerily similar to the arguments I hear for listening to certain bands...ignore that old, outdated shit and listen to this new shit that's extremely derivative of the shit I hate.