Infidel79

I've never had an issue with caliper alignment, but will happily concede on this point; fact is, most riders I know in N.E. use wheel-on style roof or hitch racks, mostly to accommodate through-axle forks and to avoid putting muddy bike wheels in the car.

I was also thinking about the examples we each cited, and the fact is, those are both somewhat catastrophic events to occur on the trail (trashed rotor, trashed wheel) which could have been a lot worse, and at which point one's choice of rim or disc brakes is probably among the least of one's concerns. Myself, I was late to jump aboard the disc band wagon; using some of your arguments, I even convinced a friend of mine not to "waste" his money on discs when buying a new bike. I have now changed my position and he has since converted to disc brakes (he now prefers them), which was costly, mainly due to the necessity of a new wheelset with disc-compatible hubs.