Interesting thread.
Categorizing things like the type of hike one is on really has no bearing or function on anyone but those who need to pigeonhole others, usually to feel better about themselves.
Day hikers, weekenders, section hikers, or thru hikers are all pretty much doing the same thing in the time they have to do it. If one has 6 months off and no other obligations I cannot think of a better way to use that time than to walk from GA to ME. To the dad who has a day to take young children to see a view they have to work for on a trail, I cannot think of a better way to use that day. Using earned vacation days to repeatedly return to the trail in order to complete it over a lifetime, I cannot think of a better use of time engaged in determined accomplishment.
Claiming one type or another is befouling the landscape with their presence or is not in a "transitionary" experience mode couples well to the notion none of us have the competency to grasp scientific facts unless fed to us in small, single syllable words.
Elitism by any other name would still look the same.
As Wolf is fond of saying, "its just walking".
A.A. Milne had some perspective: "While Eeyore frets ...... and Piglet hesitates... and Rabbit calculates... and Owl pontificates...Pooh just is."