That's a bad comparison. In tennis, you are still allowed to play with wooden rackets. Nobody does because it has a clear disadvantage in comparison with modern rackets. If there would be a tennis player who would still reach the top 50 of the world with a wooden racket, all tennis fans would adore him for being so good that he can reach such a level with a wooden racket. Well, in table tennis there are still players who use pips out rubbers and who reach the top of the world despite having a clear disadvantage against players who play with inverted rubbers with sponge. You should have some more respect for the skill level that is needed to achieve this.
I play inverted and I would find it boring as hell if everyone would play the same. One of the things that makes table tennis interesting is the fact that you have to change your tactics and play style against every opponent. The fact that you see pips-out rubbers as junk, probably means that you are a beginner who can't play against pips and highly underestimates the skill that is needed to become a good player when using pips.
I have to remind Tuppe that i almost always win my matches against pimple players in my league (this season i didnt lose one pimple player , there were about 8 of them up to C2 rating). But i do know that quite some players feel like playing against long pimples is quite annoying, even up to very good players.
In fact there was in Belgium a player (who still plays i think) that once had one match point in an official match (he lost) against Jean-Michel Saive , when Saive was world top 10 ranked player, because he played ( and still plays) with very disturbing long pimples (it were those laser modified pimples , that were not allowed anymore). I know that playing with long pimples well is not easy, but lets be honest : players who start playing long pimples do so to get an advantage over the players who dont practice enough against long pimples or who are not experienced enough to adapt to those pimples.
Most of them know their playing style will not look very pretty either
.
The long pimple story is more one of anti-table tennis. Lets be honest on this one.
Watch this match , it illustrates what long pimple play results in ...
When 2 long pimples players (both quite high rating !) play against eachother, u get this kind of game ...