I support and applaud anyone who finds a way to become and remain sober regardless of how it's done. We're all different.
My experience is that I did AA previously without doing the steps. I thought the sum total of my involvement was going to meetings and listening to people lament over how they couldn't drink. Then I walked away from it because I stated that was what AA was all about. I wasn't ready.
This time through I am doing the steps. I haven't understood the full capacity of what this program will do for me yet because I'm on step 4 currently. What I do know is that already, my life has changed and I'm sober and happy about it. I've progressed more in my life already than I ever did with the assistance of therapy. I've learned that I can't change the world but I can change me and I can let go of what I can't change. It's very freeing. I now refer to it as the program that gave me back myself, someone who was lost for a long time. Oh yeah, in the process I got to remain sober while doing it.
This program, just like sobriety, is something you have to want. In both cases, if you don't have that want then it's not going to work.
This is true for any program.