In addition to differing interpretations of the verb "plot", as Tom mentioned, this discussion may also be rooted in a difference between how one would expect this to work in a functional- versus an imperative paradigm. That would help explain why the same behavior appears to be consistent to one group and inconsistent to the other.
FWIW, I came to Julia from Mathematica; the plotting/displaying behavior here is consistent with that. I have yet to run up against what I would consider to be unintuitive behavior around plotting.
