We just had our own experience with this and I have to say that I would not judge anybody for making whatever choice they felt was right for their own situation as I know we had to make some very tough decisions and it was not easy.
We started off with a few unregistered Nigis for home milkers and pets, then went to a couple of shows and got hooked. So we started building our own foundation herd from some of the best herds we could find. We brought in animals from Piddlin Acres, Pecan Hollow, Lost Valley, etc... Our first crop of home-bred kids hit the ground this Spring and we were very excited to finally have some with OUR herd-name on them. We decided to retain a polled buckling out of our best doe and had 2 other bucklings whose dam had a nice enough udder to justify selling them as bucks. There was another buckling that we decided to band because his dam's 2F udder just wasn't good enough that we felt he should be kept intact. Then we had a single doeling, also out of our best doe that we retained.
At our first buck show, we brought along the retained buckling and his sire, who was the first registered buck we bought. He came from a very reputable breeder, excellent bloodlines, etc. His breeder checks over all of the kids she sells very thoroughly and guarantees them free of any disqualifying defects.
So, we took him to the show, and in the first ring we walked into the judge found a spur teat (silly me, I had not checked his teats since he was a baby). Since we were very close on numbers for sanction, the judge let us stay in and placed us last. To make sure that there were enough animals to make sanction, I did not scratch him from the remaining rings and none of the other judges even noticed the teat. In those rings he placed 3rd place twice and 1st place once against some very tough competition, so his overall conformation is good...there was just the one stupid fault.
Thankfully the breeder was WONDERFUL about it and immediately offered to replace him. We paid extra to 'upgrade' to a buckling out of a finished champion doe. That part was easy, what was not easy was making the decision to have to band ALL of the Spring bucklings, including the one I wanted to keep. Just felt awful to scrap everything and go back to the drawing board.
But, we want to be competitive eventually and maintain a good reputation, so all the buckings got the big green cheerio. The little doeling we retained will probably end up as a pet in our herd as I don't want to sell her. Beau is going to Epona, as she had admired his lovely color and personality and was willing to take him, faults and all, since she breeds for pet and brush management. He will be going without his papers so that his fault does not taint any future lines of show animals.
Now, I know some people may not agree with that last part, but I was not willing to send him to market as BBQ and paying around $150 to have my vet neuter him was not something I wanted to do either when a pet wether sells for $50 around here if you are lucky...and that's pushing it when you are talking about an adult wether who is not longer little and cute.
My feeling on defects is that I firmly believe that people breed/raise goats for different purposes and various defects can be more or less detrimental depending on what purpose they have for those animals. In the case of showing dairy animals or selling them for milk production, a teat spur is a BIG deal...for a pet that is going to hang out in the yard and eat brush or a meat goat, overall health, temperament, color, etc... may be something that breeder finds more important.
And then there are those that take in the unwanted, 'special' goats and appreciate them for their differences...and I don't think there is anything wrong with that either.
In our case, we set out with the goals of having competitive show animals that excel in the showring and in the milk parlour, so we won't be using any animals with serious defects in our own breeding program and we strive to breed in a way that improves any less-serious defects down the line. What others choose to do is their decision and I respect that.
The only caveat I would add is that I would hope that a breeder would be honest about any defects present when they sell their kids. That way it gives their buyers the choice to decide whether they are comfortable bringing an animal into their own herd. You'll notice that the better breeders will tell you not just the good points of their animals, but will also point out what areas need work.
