No matter how bad a wooden coaster is it can be fixed if done properly. There are some pretty terrible coasters that would be extremely good if fixed correctly. I personally think that we have so few examples of properly maintained wooden coasters that the majority of riders have (understandable) reactions that there’s no hope.

I also have another fear… I think the I-box conversions are kicking the can down the road. The thing about I-box is that even if the structure is struggling the ride still feels smooth because the steel rails cover for the imperfections in the structure. Watching parks cop out by reusing the same wood is troubling because that wooden structure still needs to be maintained. SteVe has made this obvious (as has Lightning Rod which wasn’t even used wood) because of all the structural problems both coasters have had. Maybe they can skirt around more stuff because the ride remains smoother but they still need to maintain that structure despite being told that the end result is an easy to maintain steel coaster.

To be clear, I’m not saying that parks are necessarily running unsafe coasters - I just don’t think the long term plan is as viable as people think. It seems that RMC (and others) might be learning what Gravity Group (and GCI and a few others) realized long ago… Use a steel structure for better maintenance reduction but when it comes to wooden conversions that’s not an option.

Also one less thing I want to be clear about… I don’t categorically hate RMC… They make insanely good rides. I just often think that they sell parks an easy button that encourages chain parks to slack off on proper wooden coaster maintenance because when it gets beyond a certain point they can just “RMC it” … But I also do recognize that there are cases where a coaster was going to be destroyed regardless so this is a metric that’s hard to judge but you had to admit is there.