With all due respect, I think you're confusing those who keep their birds as much as pets with those who breed for production. They're two totally different mentalities, and what you described is actually very typical of those breeding for production and/or for breed improvement. Old-time poultry keepers held a completely separate set of standards and ideals for poultry keeping than people nowadays do. If you've never read the poultry literature written in the early 1900s you should give it a try as it's very informative...and talk with some of the "old-timers" of the poultry world and the dedicated breeders. They have very strict standards for which birds to cull and which to retain, and they have been invaluable for breed improvement and preservation.
I was fortunate enough to have an online mentor on the Breeding for Production thread for over a year before he died. He taught me SO much about being practical versus sentimental. Granted, I'm still too sentimental by nature to cull as severely as I know I should, but at least I'm able to recognize and predict where many problems may occur and which birds will ultimately prove to be less productive. I've only encountered a handful of poultry keepers who still possess that essential mentality. They're a dying breed, especially in lieu of a growing belief that anyone who actually butchers their poultry for meat is cruel and inhuman. I've been called that more times than I can count.
