In NA we are taught that alcohol is just another drug. Our drug of choice is merely a symptom of our disease - a disease that extends to alcohol whether we have ever had a drink or not. To the addict, AA is home. To the alcoholic in AA, addicts are a different breed.
Here's my take: No one disputes that the bottom has been raised significantly. The introduction of treatment centers, interventions, the lessening of the stigma of being an alcoholic - all these have helped raise the bottom from the levels of despair and destitution that the original members experienced. This is not to say that the occasional person doesn't crawl through the door of AA every bit as bad off as someone coming into the program back in the thirties and forties - but it's rare today. Usually they are stopped before getting to that point.
I'd go so far as to say that the low bottom drunk has a lot more in common with an addict today than the typical AA-er. I've seen low bottom drunks come in and be rounded up by eager folks trying to help that really have no idea where this person is coming from and handing them tools that simply won't work.
Taking a low bottom drunk through the steps at a glacial pace "because that's how I did it" simply doesn't work with the 'alcoholic of our type' found in the Big Book. I know it's unpopular, and I'm not saying it to antagonize anyone, but there are an awful lot of alcoholics in AA that are little more than potential alcoholics. I'm glad they have found their way and have the chance to save themselves another twenty, thirty, or more years of misery but for folks like this - 90 in 90, the fellowship, and a step a year might work. For the desperate low bottom alcoholic (imo) it doesn't.
For them, hooking up early with a recovered addict who considers alcohol just one more drug, might be the best thing for them. As far as addicts in AA - well, I'm an addict, but I'm a member of AA because I say I am. Our responsibility declaration tells me (the way I read it) that I should help anyone, anywhere - my hand as an AA member out to be there. I am qualified to help addicts and alcoholics through the twelve steps and so I do. Whether it's at an AA meeting or an NA meeting...or under a bridge.