"Hate when companies not doing well try to dodge by blasting 'traditional accounting rules' when these rules have been crafted over the years to accurately reflect the value of said company."

I agree that criticism of traditional accounting methods often points to inherent risks and even corruption, see Enron.

However, as I understand it, measuring firm value is not the primary goal of accounting. The way depreciation is calculated, for instance, may be convenient for other reasons, but it doesn't say much about real values at all. Accounting numbers are quite artificial.

When analysts calculate firm values, through methods like DCF, they use accounting numbers from the financial statements as their inputs to calculate cash flow etc., but that's just for lack of a better alternative. In fact the numbers don't make sense by themselves and many of the accounting rules just make the estimation of firm values more difficult.