IDE is a good way to kickstart the tests, it allows non-technical people to create skeletons for tests which can then be touched up/prettified/refactored by devs.
This describes exactly my/our experience. Test recording can be a great time saver when used properly. Sure, a Java or Python guru can write a webdriver test in "seconds", but she usually does not want too. Plus the "seconds" often turn into hours of coding and debugging ;-)