Using samples doesn't mean not musician. A lot of progressive rock used the Mellotron which are clever tape loops. The biggest artists of the 80s used Fairlights and Emulators. Entire genres of music owe some lineage to Akai. If you are "producing" (in the arranging, mixing, mastering sense) today in a DAW you probably use sampling techniques all over the place even if you did a live take of real instruments. The sampler is a real instrument.
I don't think parent tried to say they're not musicians because they used samples. But more like they had more options, since they weren't just DJs, so it's possible they actually did sound design themselves, rather than sampled it. Someone who only knows DJing obviously has less options available in the beginning if they start producing.
That said, Daft Punk did rely heavily on samples all over the place (not a bad thing), and it would be surprising if there was tracks out there where they didn't use any samples at all.
I think the false dichotomy is really jarring. Setting up a straw-man population of "just DJs" that are yet capable of making sample-based music is fairly uninformed. And even "just DJs" picking the right tracks, cross fading at the right time, and potentially beat matching is still an artistic endeavor.
