I can't speak for most, but I would guess that most folks like a lighter gun since they end up carrying the gun a lot more than shooting it. As for taming recoil. I use a Benelli M-1 which is a pretty light gun. It only shoots 3" shells which is fine with me. I put a sims recoil pad on it and the reduction in recoil was amazing. The heavier the load the better it works. You can hardly notice three inch duck loads. I can't wait to see how it works when sighhting in for this spring.