That makes for some pretty old guys there.
Those seniors really like me, mainly because I am always attempting to understand the arts from their point of view, rather than my own. I think that is the major difference. As much as possible I attempt to take my own personal feelings out of the equation and sincerely try to see it from their perspective, on everything. To do that, you have to study Korean history, culture, language, the food, the relationships, the religion and values, etc. Otherwise, it will be difficult to understand their perspective.
Put another way, whenever I hear someone say "I don't care how the pioneers felt" or "That was wrong what the pioneers did" or otherwise judge harshly, from their own perspective only, a red flag gets raised in my head, because that person will find it difficult to progress to the upper levels. Or their upper levels will diluted due to their own prejudices and desires.
Learning and understanding taekwondo or any other martial art for me is like trying to put a jigsaw puzzle together, without having the advantage of knowing what the puzzle looks like before hand. When you start, your first instructor gives you a couple of pieces and no doubt gives you and incomplete view of the picture you are trying to create. This is necessary because if you concentrate on the big picture immediately, then it can be overwhelming. So you have to take in phases.
Later, your instructors stops giving you pieces and you have to go out and find the pieces for yourself. This is the stage when the picture gets distorted. Some people give up finding taekwondo pieces and instead substitute pieces from the judo or hapkido puzzle to fill in the blanks in the Taekwondo puzzle. But then you end up with a mish mash picture. Its ok if you have a particularly large hole, where you can put a small part of the judo picture inside of the framework of your taekwondo puzzle, if you have completed the framework. But there comes a point where the pieces won't fit inside the borders, and confusion sets in.
So when I hear these contrasting arguments about this or that, I can't help but think to myself that some of these people either have an incomplete puzzle without understanding what the big picture looks like, or they or their teacher have force fit puzzle pieces into their taekwondo puzzle and truly believe that their mishmash puzzle is what the taekwondo puzzle actually looks like.
To tie in another discussion I had on the karate message board, I always felt like Japanese Goju Ryu under Yamaguchi Sensei was "true" Goju Ryu, but what I have learned recently is that Japanese Goju is completely different than other purer styles in Okinawa, or even Miyagi Sensei's Goju. But if you are a Japanese Yamaguchi Goju Ryu practitioner, no doubt you were taught to believe that your style is in fact "the" style and is the pure transmission of Miyagi sensei's original style.
If that makes any sense.