Riley Major defends the honor of inline table-valued functions:
So no, user-defined functions are not the devil. Scalar user-defined functions can cause big problems if misused, but generally inline user-defined functions do not cause problems.
The real rule of thumb is not to avoid functions, but rather to avoid adorning your index fields with logic or functions. Because when you hide your intentions from the optimizer with complex syntax, you risk not getting the better performing index seek.
Riley shows an example where his inline table-valued UDF was just as efficient an execution plan as without the UDF.