I don't think anybody in this thread is throwing rocks at Pyrodex users.
I appreciate the history lesson, but don't know how it's relevant to the current discussion here in 2009, or how it ties into the OP's rant. You forgot about Cordite, too.
Pyrodex exists, as developed by Michael Levinson and the late Dan Pawlak, for one reason and one reason only: DOT shipping regulations. The stuff is less sensitive, so it's classified not as an explosive, but as a flammable. That's great for the UPS driver, not so great for the flintlock owner.
Gun shops and sporting goods stores would be more than happy to stock Holy Black if they weren't encumbered by those shipping regulations, insurance policies, and fire department rules. That's a fact, so they stock the substitutes, including the plethora of sucrose and ascorbic acid based variants we're seeing on the shelves these days.
I've shot Pyrodex and American Pioneer substitutes in my BP firearms. I find them no better, and actually worse than real honest-to-Gawd BP. Pyrodex as loaded in a BPCR .45-70 Sharps? Forget it. My muzzleloading and cartridge BP loads are more consistent over the chronograph (try within just a few FPS shot-to-shot), and I could care less about cleaning, since I clean all my BP guns immediately after I'm done shooting them. In that respect, I've actually found Pyrodex to be more corrosive than BP. Since I can purchase Goex BP fairly easily, I have no need whatsoever to buy the substitutes, but I understand completely why folks are relegated to them, and I respect them for their decisions.
You make do with what you can get. There used to be a bazillion domestic BP companies back in the day, and now we're down to just one, with a couple other varieties being imported. I've even got a couple pounds of DuPont FFFg, but they're now gone, too. The smokeless fad pretty much saw to that. If there are going to be any upstart companies providing muzzleloading propellant, you can guarantee it's going to be a DOT-approved substitute.