I personally think we need to get away from this old timer vs noobie caver mentality. WE ARE ALL CAVERS! It doesn't matter how long you have been caving. Of course when you are new to the sport there is a learning curve, as it would be with any sport. But conservation of the resource has, and always will be, at the core of our principles. We should not be sliding on this no matter how long we have been caving and we certainly should never decide which rules are not as important and therefore can be bent. Rules and policies are in place for a reason because they protect you, the resource and future generations.
That being said, the problems at Neversink are not all that new. Impact and erosion due to humans has been occurring there for at least a decade. The original rigging tree was cut down because of the same issues. Soil became packed and the roots were exposed and the tree died. If it were not cut down, it would have rotted and someone could have been killed. The problem now is that more and more people are visiting this pit because its location is well known and because of the many stories and pictures that have been posted in all sorts of media. The problem with over use of any resource always leads to decline and eventual failure.
The question is "Are we stewards or users?"