Unfortunately Gene, out of your whole post, that was the only statement I actually agreed with...
Has TCMA always been associated with perfromance? YES, of course it has. It has also always been associated with cheap magic tricks, deception, fraud and cons. IE just because something is part of the tradition doesn't mean we should automatically embrace it as positive
Speaking as a disciple of someone who DID make a living performing on the street (ie CTS), I can tell you pretty much all the things they did were "tricks" (ie no functional martial application) and they lived off the ignorance of their audience , who despite being CHinese knew as much about TCMA as the average American does today
It's like catch wrestling, which has a legit, real, applicable side, it also has it's association with pro wrestling, gimmicks, fake matches and fake techiques. To keep the real art alive, they have to DISassociate