What you're talking about, I think, is various approaches within the latter group of researchers. I defended Hofstadter in another reply because I find his goals worthwhile in and of themselves - in a "basic research" sense. Discarding anything that's not an optimal solution - the attitude taken by a couple of responses here - ignores a whole lot of interesting science, and as a scientist it bothers me quite a bit.
That said, once we're talking about the goal of understanding the human mind, GOFAI is, to be sure, incredibly old-fashioned, and you won't find me defending Hofstadter anymore as far as his approach. His goal is a worthwhile one, but you're right that his approach shouldn't really be considered an 'underdog'.
Personally, I think the best hope for understanding what intelligence is, in a general sense, comes from non-equilibrium thermodynamics, as in the sort of research goin on here: http://www.tandfonline.com/toc/heco20/24/1#.UmlRN_mfihM
but that's a can of worms for another post.
As an aside, regarding your last comment, I completely disagree on your view of philsoophy. It may not have produced results but it has guided science. But I agree with the thrust of your sentiment: an AI researcher with the goal of understanding the human mind should be spending as much time studying humans (as in, doing Psych or Cognitive Science experiments) as programming AIs.