When we look at pictures of backpackers camps, tents seem to be a dominant theme, we rarely see tarps or open camping (no shelter).
Do we equate backpacking with tents because it is profitable for tent manufacturers?
Is our obsession with tents being central to backpacking kinda like the use of prescription drugs by doctors instead of also considering alternatives from physical therapy, to behavior changes, to nutrition to herbal alternative or whatever?
Like traditional American medicine tents can be highly effective and easy to use, but, they are often not the best choice and they are rarely the most affordable or the only alternative to solving the problem at hand.
The abundance and our overdependence on prescription drugs is driven largely by the opportunity for profits for large pharmaceutical firms. They make the drugs that solve some of our problems and then they promote them heavily to doctors and patients alike so they are the first if not the only solution we migrate toward to fix a problem, even if they are not the best option available.
Don't get me wrong, tents can be great especially during the depths of a bad bug season or when camping above treeline in the mountains in the winter. But, as one of the first pieces of equipment people buy? Backpacking any of the great long-distance backpacking trails in North America doesn't require a tent. It would be so much more rewarding for people to spend limited cash on a better backpack and better sleep system than an expensive, necessary shelter.
As brought up in another thread about tents:
Is there anyone out there that has used a tarp extensively in the past and now chooses to use a tent almost exclusively?
If so, why the change?
Also, who all has switched from dominantly tenting to dominantly tarping? Why?