@devnull Thanks.
Reading that article, the analogy that occurred to me is trails. I don't object at all to trails in wilderness areas. And it's ok for the trails to be "permanent installations": with drainage, bolted down steps, etc.
The climbing infrastructure seems very similar, thinking of bolts as trails.
And like trails, we should control where they are. Social trails should be discouraged and blocked when found.
(Again, I'm just talking about wilderness areas, not all public lands.)