Ghost Writers?

The Sunday NY Times Magazine had an article about James Patterson and his book publishing empire. One thing in the article struck me as kind of odd and I quote, "This is partly because Patterson is so prolific: with the help of his stable of co-authors, he published nine original hardcover books in 2009 and will publish at least nine more in 2010." Anything sound weird in that sentence? Last time I checked his book's titles were simply James Patterson, not James Patterson and X. I mean if you push out 9 novels in a year I don't think you are fooling anyone to suggest that you yourself didn't write it all but to suggest that your favorite book might not even be 90% his written word just his plot and characters...well to me this is sacrilegious. When I find an artist and strike up a relationship I have an understanding that it is 100% the authors words and ideas and that he sat down over whatever time period and wrote, typed, dictated, or whatever the story that I am about to invest my time in. To me it is an intimate relationship but to then discover that most of it was written by some "ghost" writer who was working on a plot outline developed by the author seems to be very disingenuous...a lie, the wool being pulled over my eyes, a slight of hand, or whatever you might suggest. It saddens me a little to think that an author has become like a corporation just banging out books. Now not to make Patterson seem like a bad guy as the article would suggest that this is Patterson's doing, that he is pushing the publisher to publish 9 titles a year (or more if possible). Does it cheapen a book if you know it's not written by the author?