Ya, I pretty much agree with all of what Abacus said...
Here's another way to look at it.
I have a normal* cat:
*Except for the part where he thinks he can hide under the corner of the rug.
Other people have fancy cats:
Do I begrudge the fancy cat crowd for their fancy cats? No. I am not into that. What they are doing is not any of my concern. Is their cat the future of cats? What about my cat? Does it matter?
Now back to airsoft. I do my style of Milsim. I do not care AT ALL what goes on at big ops and John Lu style bbfest games. I don't look down on them, I do not scorn them, I just don't care. If that was all there was to airsoft, I would be doing something else.
99% of players are not into my style if Milsim. They do not care what we are doing other than the ones who are unrepentant whiners who think that all game hosts should be required to make all games cater to the "customer demand" rather than what the game host wants but just like all the rest of the whiners in the world, nobody really cares what they think anyhow.
Who's the future of airsoft? Funsoft? Milsim? Zombie games? Paintball style tournaments?
How about none of the above.
How about ALL of the above.
Fact is that diversity of opportunity is the future of the sport. Recognize that, and the entire sport moves forward. If game hosts put their image in focus so that not every event is focused towards every player than it's easier for guys to know which event suits their needs and wants the best.
I am not going to go to a tournament style game played on a paintball Xball field. I am 100% certain that none of those guys are going to accidentally end up at East Wind expecting to play tournament paintball style gaming because in both cases, we are very clear about what we are doing. The friction is not generally at either end of the spectrum, it usually lays somewhere in the middle.