In my personal experience I can not tell if cardio ever helped me lose fat. I've gone through periods when I done it too much (I felt over trained), a moderate amount, and not at all.
But as far as I can tell... getting lean, for me, is all about diet. Having muscle is all about resistance work. I still do cardio now, a couple days per week, but only because I've heard so much about a moderate amount being healthy.

But I agree with it being about a person's personal goals. It is not my goal to build cardiovascular endurance. I do want to be healthy though.

I would agree that resistance training can improve a person's cardiovascular endurace... but only to a point. I get winded when playing high intensity sports... (tennis, basketball) I think I'm in the mid-range for endurance.

Since my goals are to be muscular, lean, and healthy. I stick to primarily resistance work, a little cardio (2x/week for about 20 mins) and a good diet. I will never be able to run a marathon by doing this... but... have you ever seen a marathon runner with good muscle..?