To cop a quote from Style, "It's not lying. It's flirting."
Canned openers can work wonders for newbies, and they can cripple you if you rely to heavilly on them. Let's face it; some guys just don't have the game they need to keep girls interested right off the bat. They need help, and canned openers can do that for them. Canned routines work the same way. In his "Moving Target" video, he manages to keep a good conversation going without relying too heavilly on routines. The only time a routine comes up is to re-start the conversation if it's failing.
And let's take a really critical look at routines for a moment.
The best routines are those that are taken directly from your life. Take a look at
this essay for a method of building good routines that are taken from your life, if that's more your cuppa.
I've got nothing against canned routines and openers. I'm more likely to build a converstaion with a girl the same way I would any other conversation. But if it starts to grind down, and the energy is lagging, and I'm not at a point where I'm comfortable closing, I'll toss out my personalized Magic Spells (involving my homosexual brother), or ask her what her favorite dinosaur is, or I'll run the CUBE or S.Fields. It'll get the conversation going again, until we can think of more interesting things to say.
It's not lying. It's flirting.