Bartek, I agree with your post #115 completely, but I find myself agreeing with CanadianSkaterGuy's main argument: that champions should have SOME minimum/basement level of completed jumps to be eligible or respectable in a win. His viewpoint has been miscontrued in various discussions as "other skills in figure skating are not important", when in fact he is simply stressing that without enough jumps, it's rather lame when someone beats, for example, younger and less polished skaters who ARE reeling off say, 6-7 jumps in their LP's.
Beautiful positions, artistic refinement, divine skating skills, etc. are all very important aspects of figure skating, but without the "meat" of a competitive program (i.e. jumps), I can't feel satisfied when someone wins gold over others who brought more of the sporting aspect in the SPORT of figure skating. I say this without picking out specifics in Michelle Kwan or Mao Asada or Carolina Kostner or whoever. And I don't nitpick so badly in whether it is "clean"; flutzes, lips, <'s, if they are landed I will preferably count them in the total tally (albeit less valued, of course.)
The opposite argument, that "oh yes I am totally a fan of a 'COMPLETE skater' and someone who does 3 triples is an acceptable winner for me if they have great footwork, great engagement, great choreography, great positions, etc." is the one I completely disagree with. Keep those to Exhibitions, please.
In the modern age, if you don't do at least 5 triples (in my view, that includes <'s, and edge calls if they are still landed relatively cleanly and non-disruptively) in a FS + 2 in the SP, then pass the gold to someone else who has, even if they are weaker in other areas.
I completely agree with you. One absolutely needs "the meat" besides all those skills you've listed. The thing is that I consider Mao's WONDERFUL GPF free skate to have had both "the meat" and all the other qulities and I was pissed off when some posters, especially gmyers repeatedly insulted Mao in numerous threads and claimed that her GPF win was worthless. I'm sorry, but as much as Michelle's underrotated jumps and flutzes did not disrupt the flow and the overall impression of her program, Mao's two underrotation and the flutz did not either. Of course, those technical glitches take away a little from both program's technical value and should not be seen as full 7-triples programs but to say there were only 3 clean triples landed is a terrible exaggeration put forward in order to diminish (and in some cases insult) Mao. All in all, both program were gorgeousm even with those flaws.