No I don't think backing is an easy out for some horses but a horse that is backed for an unrelated reason for the correction, and there are plenty of people thanks to taking a single natural horsemanship method and using it for everything, is where the problem lies. I teach stopping and backing each as a separate cue. I prefer to keep them individual cues to avoid any confusion.

One of my friends has an OTTB that someone absolutely ruined in this manner before she adopted him. This boy is a natural at it and took to it quite well and frankly would rather back up than do anything else to the point of looking like you just rode him for 3 hours at a strong trot. He's so good in fact the last time she tried to load him in a trailer, he backed all over the show grounds to the point I had to go find her 20 minutes later, with him still in reverse. I think it would have been faster to back him all the way home, lol.

I think pairing the type of correction with the unwanted behavior is important and not use it solve too wide a variety of problems. I think that is how a horse learns to evade by doing just exactly what he's been inadvertantly taught. The last thing I want is for my mares to ever back unless they have a clear command to do it, actually any cue, and definately not to excess for correction which is were I think a lot of people go wrong with it like I described above. We go on some pretty frightening trails, some no more than deer paths with drops of hundreds of feet in some places. The last thing I need for them to do is to decide it's better to back up unless that is what I'm asking them to do. I agree consistancy is important and correcting things as soon as they occur is absolutely necessary every single time.