Having passed through the Whites on my AT trip this year, I can't resist the sarcastic urge to query whether it could be that folks have just wised up and decided to hike less brutal, punishing, and dangerous trails?

More than half seriously, though, that's some tough trail in the whites; I entered from Glencliff confident that it was all hype and that I could continue doing 20's. That attitude caused me to run low on food as I had to adjust to thinking of 15 miles as a big day in the Whites, and that getting through without injury was somewhat of a blessing. Since I too am more used to (pardon me, but more friggin' sane) trail in the west, I have to say that I would suggest that a person just take the cog train up to Mt. Washington and do a day hike there on a sunny day and then figure that they've seen a lot of the scenery the Whites has to offer --- and then go off and hike somewhere else where the trail quality is less purely evil.

None of the above rant is intended to detract from the OP's thesis, which I agree with (though now that I'm back home I'll surely start to re-fatten back up a bit myself ...).