3speed

Feel free to bring up whatever you want, as long as it's about suspension. For starters, I personally don't understand the reasoning behind having the best suspension possible if you're not racing. I understand "big hit" suspension that will allow you to do some pretty gnarly drops and stuff. But why is full suspension that smooths everything out as much as possible on a regular trail a good thing? Why not just ride smoother trails if you desire a smoother and/or faster ride? I've ridden two bikes now that had really expensive shocks and forks. I fully admit it was kind of entertaining to go riding along a chunky/rocky section of trail and have the bike bounce around about as much as my road bike on a paved MUP, but that's not the kind of experience I'm looking for on a normal basis when I go mountain biking. I like the challenge and difficulty of MTBing on rocky/rooty/choppy trails. Is there something I'm just not getting, or is it simply a matter of "it's just not for everyone?" Did some of you high-end full suspension all mountain guys feel this way once upon a time? Or have some of you had full suspension and decided to go back to HT or ridged for the fun challenge of it?