Environment
Where are you taking your pictures?
Be it a studio, or outdoors, where you take your pictures and what is around you will influence the result.
For me, whether or not you manipulate your pictures during post-processing, by playing with settings you can adjust in a camera or by being creative with the environment makes no real difference. It all leads to the same goal, so there is no point in arguing that one is superior to the other.
Working in a studio is the most obvious thing environmental manipulation. You can control the light, the background and add things to help frame your shot. Better yet you control when (and how often) you can take the pictures.
The most obvious manipulation is asking people to pose for you. The subject is in this way actively taking part in the process, they may stand, look, and do as fits what you want to do.
Personally, for me Cindy Sherman in her Untitled Film Stills illustrates how environment can be manipulated at best. The entire series is actually a discussion on reality as captured by the camera. While they may look like snaphots (and some are actually snapshots), most have been carefully orchestrated. Of course these are works of art and are beyond what I can hope to explain, still I think they express what is possible by manipulating your environment.
Light
Photography depends on light more than anything else. You can of course choose to rely on only what is available, or you can help the environment by adding light sources that help with your subject. Do you need sharper/diffuse light, more or less, bluer/redder, there are many possibilities.
The simplest (and most often used) is probably the flash to help you out when there is not enough light. But supporting the existing scene by additional lights, diffusors, blinds and curtains can help you a lot.
Even if you are not manipulating the light directly yourself, by choosing when to shoot and to what direction to shoot will help you with your pictures. Take the sun behind you or at least not directly ahead of you, wait for a clear day, or until snow covers the ground, choose a night without the moon, or just happen to be there when a total solar eclipse takes place. All of these are indirect manipulations of the environment
Subjects
Placing people, objects and choosing the location is all part of photography. You can of course try to capture these by chance or you may help things a bit (or more).
From experience I can tell you that not all subjects will want to co-operate with you and wait until you are satisfied with your shot. Your partner and your relatives may be more forgiving than others, and when everything else fails, you may end up paying for subjects to pose for you.
Manipulating the subjects or the scene is always part of the business, it can be direct (like renting a location for a photoshoot) or indirect, waiting until the person moves away from the shot. Even simple things like gaining access to a place for a better vantage point (by purchasing a ticket for example), or asking your friend to wear something blue to go with your composition are all examples of how we manipulate the environment.
Time
One of the most challenging aspects of photography is that naturally you will not have too much time until you can capture the scene you are trying to capture. People, pets will move or look away, it will get darker/lighter, the sun will set/rise, and you may only have a short opportunity to align everything (technical) you need for your shot. Personally this creates a lot of stress at times.
The one thing you can manipulate in the environment is this time. You can actually manipulate your environment so that you have more time. Your subjects could be asked/paid to hold a cartain pose, or re-do their movements again and again. You can coax your pet, or any other subject to move or stay within a certain place (look here is a nice treat for you) until you get what you want.
Next time, when you are at a wedding, notice how masterfully the wedding photographer directs the proceedings of the ceremony. Good wedding photographers are experts in blending in, but they will make sure that their money shots are done to their own schedule.
I don't think so. Photography (at least amateur photography) is about you enjoying what you do. Whether or not you put effort in to manipulating the environment, using different equipment, tinkering with settings or working computer magic in post-processing should not make any difference.
These pages are for Amateur Photographers and not really for seasoned photographers and professionals. I have no affiliation or commercial interest with any brand/make. I write from my own experience. I ended up using mainly Nikon, so I am more familiar with this brand than others. See price for notes on pricing as well as photography related links.