I totally agree with you about the memories and keeping photos of loved ones.
Now playing devil's advocate:
A photograph says a thousand words from the perspective of the photographer. We all perceive things differently. Ever take a photo of a place from different angles? Do you get the same kind of thousand word story? I would also say that photographs are lies because we curate them to look that way. "say cheese." "pout 80 times for a selfie" "i'm going to do something cool, take a photo" Or we wait for a good moment to snap a photo. People want witnesses to cool, happy events. A photo encases that moment forever, like a trophy and photographers are bystanders to that real time action.
Now what about other people's private moments, things that if you were put in their place, you might want others to see. Take for example this photo of children getting burned with napalm in Vietnam: 
or women in Syria receiving some bad news: 