ofcourse Donald, you got guts to write about bitless on such a forum
over here there was held a global dressage forum
http://www.globaldressageforum.com/home/with hot discussions about bit and bitless. So it is still a very difficult issue to talk about.
And people wanted more rechearch about the effects of bitless bridles they said that is the same as riding with a bit.
People still think that positive environments / learning take more time then the old way.
As long that will not changed this will continue.