I'm going to chalk this up to a matter of preference. The fact that Denny doesn't enjoy HT right off the bat tells me there is a good chance we are going to have differences in opinion on a lot of beers that are like that. HT is one of my favorite hoppy beers. just so freakin' good. the fact that it's hard to get has nothing to do with it b/c that is actually my least favorite part about it. I hate all of that kind of thing that is going on with beer. it's one of the reasons that a lot of these kinds of beers I've tried have been gifted to me by people who are willing to make that special trip, stand in line, etc. but I really do appreciate the effort b/c a lot of them have been really great and change my ideas about what beer can be like.
I happen to also really like west coast IPAs. stone, Russian river, etc. also some of my all time favorite beers. they just happen to be different than some of the stuff being brewed in new England right now. not a problem for me - I love it all. and I've tried to mimic the flavors of both types of IPAs in my own beer. I like having a variety of hoppy beers and not just one kind.
regarding any sense of rivalry or anything like that I just don't see it around here. for instance, stone's hoppy offerings are hugely popular among my hoppy beer drinking friends. so is HT, tree house and others. there is no "we do it better than them" type of thing going on here. perhaps this is a case of the west coast brewers and beer drinkers not wanting to share any of the hoppy beer spot light? it's been so west coast dominated for so long maybe this is a bit of a shock.
I just don't get why people think this is an us vs. them rivalry. It is simply, as you stated in the first sentence, a case of subjective preference. I don't dislike some of the NE IPAs becasue of where they came from...I dislike some of them because they don't meet what I'm looking for in an IPA. To think that west coast brewers don't want to "share the spotlight" is not only misguided, but also seems a bit silly.