In reply to John Gillott:
The key difference I think is that headpointing usually involves imagined danger, whereas ground-up you tend to get real handle on it sooner or later.
My views on ethics and style were fairly well formed before pads came along. I moved to Sheffield in 1996, so not long after One Summer and the first OTE bouldering guides were released (kicking the bouldering boom off a few years before mats). At the same time I was around during the filming of Hard Grit and the associated headpointing scene. I saw plenty of them at the crag, and got to see what top-rope rehearsal entailed. I wasn't impressed - I remember Seb telling a mate on dangerous routes he didn't go for the lead until he'd done it perfectly on a top-rope five times in a row.
What appealed to me about grit climbing was the weird moves and inventive style. At the time these aspects were essentially being divorced from the danger aspect - there was no creativity whilst on the lead, several exponents decribed a 'robotic' state of mind whilst headpointing.
I wanted to leave room for creativity, and doubt, whilst in those positions (not to mention the simple premise of climbing a rock from the bottom to the top). So I ignored headpointing and tried everything ground-up. I quickly realised that a lot of theae routes were short enough that you could get away with falling off - I took two or three falls from positions you might not expect to get away with, which gave me confidence. At the same time we were doing more bouldering than previous generations, so I guess we got good at landing (Alf Bridge was always a hero too). I did loads of E5s & 6s like this before pads came around, not that they always involved falls, but more solos than roped. I think its self-evident that this is an improvement on headpointing.
What's funny looking back is then when we did have one small pad (occasionally two) their use was considered carefully. Having done a few things with them, it was clear you could get away with more, and I didn't use them on a few things to earn the orginal grade. But as they became ubiquitous it became more and more contrived to eliminate them - I mean you'd still sit on one to put your boot on and squeak them. Then the other aspect was when I went back and did stuff again, with mats, I didn't find the experience significantly changed. It was still really scary. There was still plenty of doubt, you still had to land well. Most of your mates still didn't dare go anywhere near it...
Things have moved on now, where 5 or more pads isn't unusual, and of course they get used to protect headpoints, which is still something I haven't got involved with. But the terrain that has opened up is really impressive - stuff like Cornelius in the Churnet, incredible, really inspiring. In concentrating on the emasculation of 80s micro-routes, folk miss the points that pads have also allowed the limits to be pushed MUCH higher.
Ultimately the grumblings of some are less important than what the current activists are actually doing. The genie isn't going back in the bottle, just like chalk, just like cams, just like sticky rubber or anything else...