Surgery recovery, too. An older cyclist is going to need surgeries more often than a younger one, and will take much longer to recover. For some guys a high-end electric assist bike is how they stay riding with the A-group while they're recovering.
Perhaps more interesting, a lot of people I know do train but don't push themselves to the limit. There is always something left in the tank. If their goal is to train to improve it's very [lets say] expensive. They invest a lot for small returns.
Now what if you could keep going if you would otherwise feel the need to quit?
I cycle for a good while then have to guess if ill still be able make it back home. Usually I bet on the safe side. When I bet to low I could add a few laps around the block but this requires an odd kind of discipline that I seem to lack.
Rather than grow it turns into a maintenance routine. If I wanted to do maintenance I would do much less and less frequent.
I don't know if we are talking about the same thing. I am taking the argument from OP about "people recovering from surgery might need electric assist to keep up with the A-group", and I'm questioning this need.
If someone wants to have some assistance, then by all means go ahead and use it. I'm just not seeing why someone would need to have this sort of assistance, unless they are just doing some poor post-hoc rationalization for their wants.
I was paraphrashing. OP's original comment said "For some guys a high-end electric assist bike is how they stay riding with the A-group while they're recovering."
What I question here is, simply put, why "stay riding with the A-group" is in any way important? While one is recovering from surgery, what is so bad about riding with a B-group? Or why not ride with that A-group, but for a shorter distance?