There has been a P5 station spotted on FT8 several times over the last month. Most of the people that dislike FT8 don't even use the software so how would they go onto FT8 to "work him".
The True Blue DX fiasco has proved that many, many FT8 haters none the less work it from time to time. Who knows what "most" consists of? Maybe "most" is actually few. Sure looks that way when we review the public history of that now defunct club.
I wonder how many broke ranks for Macquarie Island, which was recently activated by one (or was it two? ) residents, both of which pretty much exclusively used FT8.
The thing is,
only residents can activate VK0M and we can go decades with it unavailable. It was pretty close to "FT8 or nothing". I know I worked it on FT8 because that's all I ever saw for spots.
Sure, some FT8 "haters" don't activate no matter what. And some in True Blue were supposed to be expressing a preference, not a ban.
In the end, that's semantics.
It is now clear that more than a few, maybe most True Blue members,
are willing to make exceptions in extreme cases or even not so extreme cases. That's beyond debate now. A lot of "haters" don't quite hold the line.
I remember when hating DX List Operations was a big thing. However, for many years, Monk Apollo basically hung around Snookie's net and nowhere else. It was always taken for granted that a lot of folks swallowed their virtue long enough to get SV/A the only available way. Sure, Monk Apollo eventually learned to run pileups. But, it was by no means clear that was ever happening when he hung out at Snookie's. The "line" at Snookie's was always very long, longer than usual, when Monk Apollo showed up. This was pretty common knowledge.
So, one of the recurring things about the Grandpas among us that (publicly) forbid new tech is that when pushed hard enough, they will relent, albeit quietly. And, frankly, it's OK with me. This stuff is hard enough without the unwritten rules.
So, don't yammer on about how a "hater" will never work FT8. The history of these things is one of quiet relenting in special cases. Always true. We don't have to know which have FT8 in their back pocket or not. Not really our business in the end. But, don't sucker yourself that there is this large group that absolute, unequivocally doesn't.
They may work it on FT8, hold the card with tweezers and hope for something "better" later. But, that's the real world pattern. It takes balls of steel to turn down a once in 30 year chance because it may only happen on FT8. Most of us don't really have balls of steel like that.