Its not an argument that a helmet lessens the chance of injury, its a fact.
To your point, I am one of the very few skiers who actually does wear full gear. If you see me in the park, you can be damn sure that not only do I have a helmet on, but I am wearing a mouthgaurd, Upper body armor with Hardplates on the shoulders, elbows, and spine, wristguards under my mittens, and shorts with hip, knee and tailbone plates.
I wear all of it under my outerwear, and you would have absolutely no idea that I have them on underneath. I still look just as 'cool' as anyone else, except I am far less susceptible to a season ending injury than pretty much anyone else in the park. Does it mean I can ski way above my ability level? No. But it gives me the confidence to work on stuff for longer, knowing that if my feet slide out from under me on a rail, I am not going to break my hip or lose half my teeth. Also, you do hit a point in park progession where the only way to progress further, is to push past your ability boundary. For example, I know all of you are super steezy and have been throwing 3s sense you flew out of the womb on your Armadas, but pushing from doing a basic straight air with a grab, to a 360, is a huge push past your abilities. You can prep yourself as much as you want, but the time comes where if you want to be able to do it, you need to just throw it. Having hard-plates on all the important bits of my body gives me the peace of mind that if I fuck up something new, I have a much lower chance of breaking myself.
The entire setup including helmet only cost me about 250, and I wear it every day I am out. To sweeten the deal, that armor is one of the warmest base layers I have ever worn, and after you wear it for about 20 minutes you forget that it is on. Same with helmets, Helmets are the best hats you could wear because they are generally completely windproof, water proof and warmer than and hat you might wear. There is absolutely no reason to end up breaking your wrist, or shoulder, or hip when we have comfortable, fairly affordable protection, that has no impact on how you look.
I guess alot of this comes with age, and having taken plenty of hits over the years during various sports or stupid shenanigans, but by the time you hit your mid-20s you have smartened up enough to the point where you realize that no, you are not indestructible, and never were, and on top of that you take a bit longer to heal than when you were 18. That it is fairly embarrassing to be at your day job in an office with a cast on or a sling, and when asked what happened you have to say you went too big in the park and now have issues completing a basic job function like writing or typing. Anyone arguing against, or voluntarily not wearing at least a helmet, in my view, is incredibly immature, regardless of age, at any skill level including the pros. Yes I love all the same edits as you but when I see someone from Stept, for 4bi9 or Saga not wearing a helmet, I think they are stupid.
One last thing, as far as skiing being influenced by skating. Last time I checked, every time I watched any skate comp on TV, every pro was wearing at least a helmet, with many wearing knees and elbows as well.
