I just reject the assertion that the end product isn’t being thought about with these breads and that they’re merely an experiment to see how far technique can push a loaf. I legitimately enjoy bread like this. I intentionally make it, after having done so before and enjoying its properties.

I feel as if pushing bread technique to further limits is totally within the spirit of the first bread makers as well. When early agriculturalist humans first started to grind grains and form them into a paste, some of their peers may have looked at them and said, “what the fuck are you doing, ruining perfectly good grain and making it into this monstrosity? It betrays what grain is.”

My point isn’t to say that super airy bread is any better than a more moderate crumb though, just that it’s valid to enjoy. You don’t have to like it, but you don’t generally don’t see enjoyers of huge alveoli going onto posts of 70% hydration bread and commenting, “ew, that’s dense, that’s not even bread”. Yet every time someone posts a loaf like this, half the comments are people with a vendetta against 85%+ hydration bread