Nah, you've just misunderstood me - sorry if I wasn't very clear :) I agree that being able to address an individual's concerns is very important, and I certainly don't consider mentoring a pita. The original post just expressed the idea that you can't teach everything through lectures and so forth, and I was trying to provide a reason why that is so.
If anything you seem to be saying that you find being a mentor a p.i.t.a, which is perfectly valid but not really a part of this conversation.