Data

If most compounders were, as you say, opportunists that are looking for the easy way into archery....they would embrace crossbows.

I seriously disagree with you here, dude.

Traditionalists are the purists, I agree with that. They have chosen the toughest path, and god bless them. I hope that their motives are pure - to increase the challenge of bowhunting by further decreasing the range required to take an ethical shot.

Compounders are more pragmatic. They increase their lethality so that they can capitalize on those opportunities that are just outside the range of traditionalists, or raise the certainty of those chances inside said boundaries.

I will agree there are yahoos with compounds out there that "tech up" to increase their range and take questionable shots. I do not believe that most, or even many, of the folks you chat with here fall into that group.

Maybe I am just naive.