Selecting by attribute value and exporting to a new feature class wont work?
When I was in college programmable calculators were just hitting the scene. A group of us approached our calculus professor and asked if we could use them in class. He said : " Sure. But you still need to learn the calculus. Don't become a slave to the machine..." Man, that guy was cool.
Translated: you still need to know data base manipulation, geographic principles and cartography. Thinking and figuring out a solution are still valuable skills all these years later.....
That should just about do it....