And I wouldn't feel right chopping a route then coming back and leading it to put bolts back in.
Talk more about this. I've had the same sensation on occasion with a line I had spied, but someone later bolted it on rappel. In that area, there is not precedent or strong tradition to appeal to, unfortunately. But in the case of Pinnacles, there seems to be enough incursions into TD behavior for what is a GU area, that it seems right to say no more. Preserve it for guys like you and Mark and other strong climbers that have never heard of GU climbing, but once they do, they'll need folks actually doing it to show them how it's done and why that moment or possibility of 'not knowing' is so important.
If the only examples going forward are top down, then 'we live what we learn' as a community.
From the little information we have here and on FB, it seems justifiable to remove the bolts in my opinion. We should confirm with the route setter/equippers. There should be no 'scene' around it. They just quietly disappear one day.
Also, I don't think thug means threat of violence or anything like that. It means physical effort has to be expended to pull those. Most likely they are stud wedge type bolts. Much harder to pull, thuggish.
Then again a "SMACK DOWN TIME" language was used. But that person is always energetic in their speech and may have meant smack talk, not as in physical threat of violence.
