Agree, its just that NE style IPAs have no qualities you list. No chunks, no flaws. They just do a lot of late hopping, use yeasts that are less flocculant, don't do "unnecessary" filtering or cold crashing, and just bottle and serve when ready.
Word.
I think the misconception is that breweries intentionally make hazy beers. In reality, it's the brewing processes that they don't employ (e.g. fining and filtering) that result in hazy beer. Also, crystal-clear IPAs are very much a new thing, relatively speaking. So really, which style is the controversial one?
As an aside, I tried to acquire WY1318 from my LHBS yesterday and I was told they sold out of 28 smack packs within 72 hours. Seems like there's a few others that figured it out already.