Laying tracks - Question(s)

Just pulled out Martin, Margaret and Scott's book, Backcountry Skiing and looked up the topic there...
Chapter 4 (starting on pg 140) on “Uphill Movement” gives lots of great tips on this topic.
This book is really a "Must Have" for any truly serious backcountry skier or snow rider.
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"that even a few feet of moderate-angled climbing is seen as defeat for some."

That is my sense as well. I am much older than the guys I tour with so I end up following them most of the time. Not because they are stronger but because they have a need to lead and I don't mind following a safe but poor path. Criticizing someones track is like suggesting their writting is bad; they get defensive. However, in the end it is less effort on me to follow so instead of saying "much" I just fall-in.

We of course always have the option of setting our own track when we don't like the one we're following. That said, if those in the lead are setting a track that is wasting the energy of members of their own group, they may well pay by having to wait longer for lagging party members, or not being able to go as far (assuming they are interested in keeping the party together). They may also be wasting their own energy, but that's  an argument that's not worth trying to win.

On our tour yesterday, where we mostly set our own track once off Smith Brook road, we discussed how obnoxious it can be to have someone who insists on driving from the rear. I also repeatedly told my partner how much I learned from him by watching how artfully he got through the various obstacles we encountered  . Unfortunately he was onto my "positive reinforcement strategy," and I ended up doing my fair share of the breaking. And despite what I wrote in a prior post above, there were a few places where I employed veggie belay, at least one bit of skinned herringboning, many little switchbacks, and several spots that were way steeper than what I'd do if not trying to get up through complex and steep terrain.

"that even a few feet of moderate-angled climbing is seen as defeat for some."

Is that a quote from "Backcountry Skiing"? Referring to those who insist on skinning to the top regardless of whether a quick boot pack would be more efficient? IME it's usually the old experienced ones who keep skinning in insanely steep and narrow places just to see if they can do it. The young guys with huge skis love to bootpack.

I believe he got it from my post above - the full context might help (and note the word "often" - it was consciously not "always"):

In the "running into a tree" situation described in the OP, it is often more efficient to simply relax the angle a bit ahead of the tree to allow the path to go under it, and then resume the desired climb angle, versus switchbacking only to face the same problem 20 yards ahead. I suspect this notion is at least a bit up for debate based on the tracks I sometimes see out there, which give me a sense that even a few feet of moderate-angled climbing is seen as defeat for some.

I see myself in your image of older guys hanging on to keeping the skis on past the point of efficiency (though steep and narrow skinning has never been my thing if bootpacking was at all an option, but I've skinned to Piker's Peak when everyone else was bootpacking, and noted that I was keeping pace with my party members), but I'm slowly learning  .