*coughcoughbahadzubucoughcough* Oh, sorry, I had something stuck in my throat.
I concur. Some FMA arts are far more guilty of this than others. I believe a good chunk of Ethnographic blade enthusiasts began as FMA students, however. The quest for knowledge with the goal of demistifying these stories is what led me here, personally. (It also led me to seek deeper study in other forms of martial arts like Bruneian Silat and to a lesser extent Silat Mande Muda to gain more inisght into how Moros could possibly have used their blades but admittedly this was less of an academic endeavour and more of a hypothetical exercise in my mind)
Looking back how I used to see things in 2006 versus today in terms of my martial (and cultural) heritage makes me laugh. It also, however, alarms me to think that my fellow Silat men and FMA practitioners still think in terms of these half-truths told for marketing purposes. In my mind it underscores the necessity for resources like this site, and for sites like Filhistory and Morolandhistory for the casual historian who seeks to differentiate truth from myth but does not have easy access to much physical historical text.
(Oh, and that Minasbad is beautiful! I have already expressed to you about how much I enjoy these Bicolano wonders, Robert, but it can't hurt to repeat myself :P )