Okay. I understand what you’re saying. But know that not every showing owner is inept and controlled by either their farrier or their trainer. Some of us are very knowledgeable about our horses care and about hoof health/needs. And ultimately only want what’s best for our horse. Bare or shod.
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IME, way more people put shoes on because they can’t (or “can’t”) afford the downtime to either properly condition the feet for bare, or to have a situation come up where footing is too much for the current level of conditioning and they either have to scratch, or end up with a sore (or worse) horse.
A LOT of horses aren’t getting the trim to allow the foot to be healthy enough to be barefoot, and the owner, no matter how talented a rider or trainer, just can’t see it. And it’s not always a glaring issue.
Some horses have such good feet that if (big if!) the trim is good, the feet have no problem with the transition, and can handle enough “off” footing that there’s barely a blip in training.
It’s hard for horses who live in a wet climate, to get feet healthy enough for what’s often not soft enough footing
It’s hard for horses who live in areas where there’s little to no turnout, but who compete “big”, to get feet healthy enough to have a chance at being ok at a lot of show venues.
And some owners can’t or don’t want to take the time to do the hands-on work it might take to get their horse’s feet gravel-crushing enough to not worry about what the next show grounds might hold.
Of course, one can reasonably expect that accommodations at the Olympics are top notch, so footing anywhere the horses are likely to be is far less questionable.
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Similar situation 20 years ago. “Trainer” (more like instructor) asks me why my horse doesn’t have hind shoes. I say, “because he doesn’t need them.” (This was the closest I’ve ever been to “being in a program.” I’ve never wanted to be one who says “My trainer says this. My trainer says that.”) Actually same “trainer” got very put out that I wouldn’t put a standing martingale on my horse either, that was the end of any semblance of me being in her program.
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I had a similar thing with martingales and neck stretchers. ‘Trainer’ wanted me to ride my horse in a neck stretcher at home and a very tight martingale at shows (she wanted him in a small horse size when he needed at the very least an OS). I said I didn’t feel comfortable riding in a neck stretcher, and that I also didn’t think I needed to crank his nose down and that I felt we could train him to have a better head carriage without gimmicks. She told me I’d never win if I didn’t do it.
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THIS!
My TB - bred for the track, but never raced - was shod for all his life & the first 5yrs I owned him.
Showed as a Hunter & shoer had him in keg shoes w/toeclips.
When I left the show barn I tried him barefoot & went through a period of adjustment.
He was ~13 at the time & eventually - after a stage of limping like Lassie Come Home & being comfortable only on grass - was fine barefoot for the rest of his life. Lost him at 27 & by then he had shown Lower Level Dressage (schooling 3rd), Evented BNH (schooled to Training) & was fine on trails, even if gravel.
If he had shown he needed shoes, they would have gone back on.
My mini had a near-founder episode last year & a flareup this year.
He is now sound & driveable on grass. I am avoiding asphalt & gravel.
I am looking at boots for driving him on trails & may put shoes on him for Driving season.
To Each (horse) their own.
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A lot of horses aren’t getting the trim to allow the foot to be healthy shod as well, but that’s another story.
In general in my area, I see a lot of hoof care decisions made based off the universal preference of the trainer in charge. So if trainer thinks riding horses need to be shod, all horses will be shod.
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For sure, but at least they don’t LOOK lame :\ If the trim doesn’t allow a healthy bare foot (all else equal), it’s not a healthy foot, period, shoes or not
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If you have a qualified , skilled farrier who can actually do their job correctly it is never harmful to have your horse shod. Makes no difference if they " need" it or not.
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Right!
The main thing is finding a good farrier. Only slightly easier than “first, make a sorcerer’s stone” 
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Will have to respectfully disagree with you, I own a horse who cannot tolerate nails of any kind. Shoes that are nailed on are harmful to him.
He has gone nicely in glue ons though.
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OK, not trying to open a can of worms here, but don’t shoes inevitably reduce frog contact with the ground, and hence the benefits of facilitating circulation? This question could well simply reflect my ignorance–it’s not meant to question the benefits of shoes.
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On what footing? Pasture, riding rings, all generally have softer and/or “lumpier” footing that pressed up into the sole and against the frog, providing plenty of ground contact. Most horses live and work on those types of surfaces.
Hardpan desert type area? That could potentially start mattering, but it’s easy to add a pad that goes over just the frog, leaving the sole exposed, to provide extra contact.
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I really don’t see any difference between glue on or nail on shoes? Both have the horse wearing shoes.
As @JB said it depends on the surfaces you ride on. I have had " mostly" barefoot horses for a long time. They all have had good, strong, healthy , hard feet to begin with and I ride in fields/ on trail. I found that the frog was pretty well flattened on my barefoot horses. It caused no issues though.
My currently shod mare has more frog now that she is wearing shoes. She has excellent feet but needs shoes ( as per vet) due to having side bone.
While keeping feet " natural" is always best, I have never had a horse that had “good feet” develop “bad feet” because they wore shoes.
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He couldn’t tolerate nails. It made him very footsore. So for him, nailed on shoes were intolerable for him. As I said I’m not anti-shoe, sometimes horses need them, I just think we as a equestrian society shoe a lot more horses than we need to.
For some reason, though no one is really sure why, the glue on shoes tend to promote sole growth and increase the overall hoof size. I’m part of a Facebook farrier group and it’s been noted by many farriers who work with glue on shoes. I saw it in my own horse and weirdly enough the increased hoof size stayed even though he has been out of glue ons for about 2.5 years now.
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I think it’s awesome to see barefoot horses at the highest level. I think many horses don’t “need” to be shod for the jobs they have…but barefoot does take maintenance and sometimes shoes are just easier.
However, it makes perfect sense to run barefoot on the cushy, sticky synthetic footing used in modern competitions. Race horses have been running barefoot on synthetics for years, with good results, because shod horses can actually be at a disadvantage on poly footing. The hoof needs to slide a little bit on the landing phase of the stride-- both for racehorses and for landing off big jumps. Shoes can “stick” in synthetic footing, causing additional torque and stress to the lower limb when there is no slip. A bare foot can move more, perhaps preventing soreness in soft tissue.
All that said, though, I thought the Swedish horse All In jumped fantastic but moved a little short strided or choppy galloping between fences. I read that this horse has only been barefoot for about a month, so perhaps he isn’t fully adapted yet. I recognized this shorter movement because my Advanced event mare looked similar every winter when I pulled her shoes for 3 months. She was “sound” and happy, her feet looked great, and I thought she felt fine. But when I put her shoes back on each February, she moved bigger and better, landing more confidently in her front end.
My horses are barefoot unless they need shoes. Until there is a way to put studs in a bare hoof, mine will usually get shoes at prelim level and above.
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As our old trainer used to say, plenty of horses do ok without shoes, some do very well, some do excellent, but all of them do even better with the right shoes when those can help improve traction and comfort.
I bet watching horses jumping without shoes, that is what he would say, think how much more they could do with the right shoes helping them. 
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When did we start mass producing pre-drilled keg shoes and switch predominately to cold shoeing?
Because it’s the “right shoes” part that has become increasingly problematic. And I would wager a guess that’s one factor.
There are a lot of not right shoe jobs out there. And the ironic problem is the worse the shoe job, the unhealthier the hoof becomes, which increases the dependency on those problematic shoes.
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Yes, of course, trimming, shoeing, using boots, any work on horse’s hooves has to first be right … for that horse! 
From the article I linked above:
H&M All In began competing barefoot in April and is part of a growing group of horses performing at the top levels of the sport with “non-invasive forms of hoof protection.”
So four months since his first competition. I would imagine there was a period of transition before the first competition.
Here he is winning the silver medal in Rio in 2016. I will agree his movement is a bit different, but the horse is also 5 years older and now shoeless. Performance did not suffer that’s for sure.
Usually (which means usually, not always LOL) this means there’s lowgrade chronic laminitis, or some arthritis that is aggravated by how feet are held/positioned/tensioned (think ringbone), or something that is the root of it. The nailing process just showcases what’s going on
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