I think there;s a big difference between a 21-year-old kid getting trashed keggers 20 times over the course of a semester, and an adult man or woman who is getting wasted often, especially nightly.
I don't think it's true that there are a lot of heavy drinkers who don't have a drinking problem. Most of the adults that I know don't drink to excess except on very rare occassions.
As for who is an alcoholic and painting with broad brushes - this is denial of the most serious kind. There's a lot of quacking going on here.
In my experience people who criticize AA fervently are simply unable to accept that abstinence is the only way for them. It's not really AA itself, but the pain in knowing that quitting drinking is their only true salvation.
So they pick away and deny that they need to quit drinking, all the while engaging in the "not yets" - nope, didn't lose my job yet, didn't lose my family yet, didn't get arrested yet, didn't kill anyone yet. And they think they aren't really real drunks. Until one of the "yets" comes true. Then they go to AA and wished they had listened long ago, before the terrible "yet" came true.