In an attempt to bring this back on topic thank you to everyone for your opinions on why a person may use a synthetic but be opposed to pastes. There were some great points in my opinion about the mess and number of objects to keep track of even if they are small points. To reiterate I can understand that someone may prefer a stone to a paste for personal reasons and not because one is better than the other and the idea that the substrates are different is definately something to keep in mind. All are attempts to explain certain biases that you experience within the honing community and although none of them by themselves are convincing maybe as a whole it makes a bit more sense to me. Although as was posted above I too wonder if someone who finished on a 20k synthetic and stropped could tell the difference of the edge as opposed to someone who finished on a paste and strops instead. So in the end the one that makes the most sense to me is a combination of all the above.
The idea that it is somehow "cheating" by finishing on a pasted "whatever" instead of a synthetic hone is still foriegn and seems a bit of a "double standard" to me but when someone says hey I just prefer the edge off this or that stone or I have no other reason than preference. Interestingly, I can understand that rationale better.