Arborjockey,
We're talking about it because alot of people go both ways, and for different reasons. Companies doing line clearances and such won't pay someone to prune without gaffs, apparently. Some customers refuse to pay what it would cost to properly prune a tree which needs it badly, and some species are more tolerant to it.
Beyond that, it's a good thread for helping lurkers out there who prune with gaffs but won't speak up on here, to see what they're doing wrong; as well as helping to show people different approaches that can be taken to do things the right way
I'm glad you operate using proper techniques and its cool that you've NEVER gaff'd a tree while pruning, even when you were just starting out as a completely newb climber. That's pretty cool since some of us didn't know
about the right way to do things when we were starting. I wish *I* could say that I've never made mistakes like that while on my learning curve.