Yes, you are right. Most people do not realize that trading with EAs requires the same or even more skills as trading manually. Mostly is due to the misleading marketing how the vendors promote their products. One still has to understand the market in general, especially the currency pair he or she wish to trade, know the logic behind his/her trading strategy inside-out, not to mention money management and discipline. The only thing EAs save you is time but only after you have learned all the necessary things. Most people think that they can skip the learning phase and just drop an EA onto a chart and they will make money, but due to lack of understanding they will intervene unnecessarily and lose.
I have been trading for 3 years now and this is the first year I am profitable with my EAs (touch wood), but this did not come free. I have tried and tested several systems, lost some money, and a little bit more, and learned things in the hard way, but now I am much more cautious and do not use any system unless I uderstand it completely or I am willing to lose all my invested money with it.