Apparently my point was too subtle for you. Of course people have different preferences. if this was not the case there would only be one type of anything. My point was that for a breed to be a breed it must posess certain characteristics. Among these characteristics there is often one that truely seperates the breed from others, such as the examples I cited.
My point was, how can one profess a fondness for a particular breed while at the same time rejecting that one clearly identifying characteristic?
As to Japanese Bantams your contention that the description of their leg length has changed over time doesn't prove out. I have copies of nearly every APA Standard back to my earliest, 1875. In all of them which include the Japanese Bantam the description of the leg length is the same: "very short". These birds were bred in Japan long before they were listed in the APA Standard & every early illustration I've ever seen has shown birds with very short legs.
As to short-legged Japanese Banatms "suffering" from getting dirty I solve that problem by keeping their accomodations clean as I do with all my birds. I haven't noticed any occurance of deformed toes in my Japanese Bantams nor have I noticed any higher than usual occurance of leg mites
I would suggest that when one says they like Japanese Bantams but the birds they prefer would be disqualified if shown as Japanese Bantams really don't like Japanese bantams, they like small single combed chickens with fairly short legs.
I mean I want show ones but my mom wanted her some quick an easy so we just ordered some.