The debate as old as the styles

It never seems to go away, Traditional Martial Arts v Mixed Martial Arts. I would've thought by now that we could reach a conclusion, it's not like people are shy at giving their opinions via the interweb. Well here is mine (ironically via the interweb :) I don't care either way, have both or have neither. Most importantly can we stop going on about it? The real problem comes when we start to argue about which is better. Who would win? Could TMA's Dad beat up MMA's Dad! I've said it before not all Martial Artists are fighters and not all fighters are Martial Artists. A pensioner who has dedicated 20 years to Tai Chi has no more and no less merit than a younger person who has dedicated 10 to Kickboxing. Both Martial Artists but only one is "a fighter". A gangster who once stabbed some hapless victim in the back, or a person who devoted years to becoming a heavyweight boxing champion. Both fighters only one can be described as  "an artist".
 Why is it that we as Martial Artists are expected to be both? By all definitions a discuss thrower should be good at 100m hurdles, a javelin thrower good at the pole vault. They're both athletic events after all. A rugby prop should play well as a basketball centre, it is after all a ball sport! Fighting is only one aspect of Martial Arts. It seems to me that MMA practitioners expect an awful lot from TMA practitioners. "If (INSERT STYLE) is so good, why hasn't one of the so called masters stepped into the Octagon?" You've heard that asked right? what about this? (which may never have been asked): "If George St Pierre is such a great martial artist why doesn't he demo his skill with the spear or the sword?"
I'm being deliberately obtuse as I'm clearly asking the wrong question. The debate really is as old as the styles, but unlike the styles it hasn't evolved.
A traditional guy would get his ass kicked that's why they don't do it! We are told. www.youtube.com/watch?v=51rOr2srDhc
That is Cung Le a Sanda fighter knocking out someone in the Octagon within 20 seconds or so. Sanda is of course a traditional fighting form, so what do you mean? Some other traditional form? Like Jujitsu maybe?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSYmUtqCYeY, What about wrestling? That's probably the oldest fighting form we know off www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBnWgT2en1U. Obviously there is a vital role in MMA for tradition. In fact MMA has much debt to TMA and vice versa. MMA isolated one aspect and ran with it to great success. This is a great thing made possible by traditions past. TMA guys get over it, it isn't ruining the style. It is making it more culturally ubiquitous. People see it and fancy doing something like it because it has a certain appeal. Many don't want to get hurt so approach the side of the martial art not devoted to competitive fighting. I've done both, after getting my black sash I scouted around to develop. I dabbled in MMA whilst having a go a BJJ. I remember in the same week we received the same lesson in an escape from an armbar. The MMA solution was brilliant in its brutal efficiency, the BJJ brilliant in its technical efficiency. Both brilliant both efficient so I took both with me.
 One of the first lessons taught to me by Sifu Steve Newby was to fold my arms: Please give it a go.
Have a look, most people have their dominant arm on the bottom (maybe not doesn't matter). Fold your arms the other way with your dominant arm on the top. Feels weird but has the same final result. You just achieved the same result from a different approach-no big deal, I'm over it already! The point is what are you trying to achieve? Why do YOU do Martial Arts?
 TMA has evolved in some form to become MMA, yet still the debate goes on and on, endlessly repeated never resolved, never evolving. How boring!
When does a discuss thrower have to be good at 100m hurdles? When they choose to compete at Heptathlon that's when. You decide what you want to train, you decide what lessons you take as useful. You don't get to decide which one is better, only which one is more suited to you. Do you want to be a Fighter? Maybe you want to be more? Maybe you want both or maybe you want to be a Rugby prop who plays basketball? It's up to you, but you don't have the right to tell anyone otherwise.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7PPWgQiNtQ