Partial Mocking As Code Smell?

Why is there so much hating going on about 'partial mocking' and the code that requires it?

Here's an (theoretical) example implementation:

public ComplexResult1 operationA(Stimulus a) {
    {
        ...
        result = ...;
    }
    auditTheChange(a);
}
public ComplexResult2 operationB(Stimulus b) {
    {
        ...
        result = ...;
    }
    auditTheChange(b);
    return result;
}
void auditTheChange(Stimulus stim) {
    // do a bunch of stuff to record the change
    // and interact with another outside service
}

Now, in my understanding this is well refactored code.

If I want to UNIT test operationA and operationB, and ensure that auditing happens in each scenario, but without having to test the specifics of the audit code, I would use partial mocking.

What am I not seeing/understanding that causes so many projects (EasyMock, Mockito, etc.) to recommend refactoring?