Nancy,
The big deal is if you are not careful, you may get stuck paying a lot more than a small percentage. All We (including Rick Steves) are suggesting is to be careful in the choice of where to get cash. Of course if you are arriving in any country and need local cash to get going, a small withdrawal from any ATM is not going to kill you financially.
"ATMs everywhere have fees attached to them." "All currency conversions have a fee attached." No, they don't. :-)
Your bank may charge you a fee to use any ATM. If it does, look around for another bank as there are many now that don't charge this fee. Same with Foreign Exchange fees. There are many financial institutions that no longer pass on the fee, with or without a markup from the 1% the network charges, to their customers. And I bet that the fee the ATM charges at the "sleazy" place is a lot higher than the fee charged by the ATM at the grocery store.
Most ATMs in Europe don't charge a fee to you at the machine (at least that has been my experience). That means if you ask for 100 Euros, that is all the ATM is going to charge your bank and your receipt at the ATM will show only the 100 Euro amount.
If you are OK with the fees you pay for ATM use, then OK that is your choice. While I am not going to waste my vacation time searching for the perfect ATM to use, I'm also not necessarily going to use the very first one I see when I step off the plane.