Hm… I understand that, if you do biohacking (which is usually closer to surgery than to “normal” bodymod), you do so for a certain purpose - to get some technical advantage, or whatever. I’m fine with numbing there, because it is more about the result than about the way there. I’m also the biggest pansy considering dentists, so I take everything I can to make this as painless as possible.
But for bodymods, there is more behind it - at least for me, for many I know, and especially for those cultures where much of it comes from. I don’t do it for the jewelry. I do it for the experience, and pain is an important part of that. In my opinion, if you take away the pain, you just reduce bodymods to fashion, in a way, and that is something that - again, in my opinion - does this no justice.
That might be why several “serious” bodymodders don’t like it when things get numbed - it is this “all about the results”-attitude, and that is so very different from where it all started, in a way.