Really!! i didn't know the down turn had been going on for 15 years or more!!! Well you learn something new every day!! lolI
I work on building sites, ....Big building sites and have done for the best part of my working life.
Instead of trying to be a Smart Arse, You tell me why you would want a neutral being distributed in switch boxes that just sits there in the vast majority of cases, doing Nothing. And perhaps tell us why you consider a switch box that can end up jammed full of cables, because your looping through switch boxes is BETTER?? (I think someone posted a photo of just such a situation on this thread somewhere) Seen it far too many times, where it becomes an art form just to try and get the front switch plates into even deep boxes... As i've said, if you NEED a neutral at a switch position fine, i have no problem with that at all, but looping for the sake of it. ...No way!!!
Why is it you always mention downlights when hailing the neutral switch loop system?? Only one of the downlight positions will have a max of 4 T&E's that need to be connected, the rest will just be looping between the downlights when using the ceiling 3 plate system. So apart from that one position, it's exactly the same wiring, as looping through the switches.
Basically, ...I don't give a monkey's how you wire an installation, you do whatever you want to do, but your not in a month of sunday's going to convince me a switch loop lighting system is BETTER than the recognised and established wiring systems, and that's the end of, as far as i'm concerned...