I'm Chinese, and live in the SF area, so I eschew PF Changs as much as I can since there are countless other options.

However, to be fair about PF Changs, they introduce to the average American that there exists "better" Chinese food (and respective techniques) than what is experienced at Panda Express and the local chop suey and eggfooyung place.

Those of us who live in big metropolitan areas are spoiled by easy-to-find Chinese (or at least Asian) supermarkets, and several non-Americanized Chinese restaurants.

I've had to go to cities before, because of work, where there were no acceptable Chinese restaurants around (unless the kitchen was kind enough to make me their family-staff dishes off-menu) except for PF Changs.