I think that feelings are really varied.
One thing is certain. Sellers are splitters. More species =more variety= more sales.
In the areas of the Mediterranean where the plants grow the splitters are in the majority. Endemics are good, not just because of a sense of local pride but because it helps conserve them. If you are trying to stop some property development then it helps if you a protecting a species which occurs only on your island rather than one which occurs all over the place.
As for the growers in the UK the whole taxonomy thing causes issues. A splitter, or just someone who is oblivious to the issue, calls a plant one thing and you can be sure that someone will contradict them, not always in the most friendly way. One one forum there are a few people that I call the "name police". I am sure that they sit with fingers poised on the keyboard waiting for a "wrong" name to appear.
I double label everything, with what I believe is the official name and what I bought it as. Sometimes the name ends up longer than the plant. But I am a lumper at heart, as I simply do not believe these minute differences make a species. I have always said that if there are 300+ Ophrys species then there must be a few dozen species of humans on the planet as the differences between us are just as big as those between the plants.
Overall the whole situation is a bit of a mess. The constant changing of names actually only succeeding in causing the sort of confusion that the whole scientific / Latin name system was meant to prevent.
Didn't you have some similar issues in Australia with Pterostylis?
Sorry for the essay, but you did ask! I suppose I could have just said "It's complicated."
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