Is the plant "suitable" for Bonsai?

Is the plant "guilty" for being a bonsai? I can't say it's a frequent question, but it has been asked of me before. A little while ago, this question was raised here as well. Wiring, pruning the roots and branches, small pots—this is torture for the plant. "Would it be good if I cut off your arms and legs?", "Are you a comprachicos?", I've heard such questions too. I don't know how appropriate or equivalent it is to equate a plant with a human (or another animal).

Pruning and wiring are not exclusive to bonsai. Anyone with experience in gardening or viticulture knows that all fruit-bearing crops are pruned every year. Transplanting and trimming the roots are also common practices. A farmer tending to a vineyard and producing wine uses these methods to increase productivity, while in bonsai culture, the goal is to achieve a specific shape, so the purpose and scale are different.

If a garden or vineyard is foreign to someone living in the city, they will still have seen in Tbilisi, in early spring, how the planes are pruned, cutting off all the branches to encourage new, denser growth. This process is called rejuvenation pruning. The example of European gardens can also be mentioned. Trees and shrubs in these gardens have a specific geometric shape, symmetry, and certain regularity in their form. I doubt anyone believes these plants naturally take on such shapes without pruning.

“Isn’t it a sin?”—I don’t know why people don’t ask themselves this question when they eat carrots or parsley. Maybe the Earth also suffers when they plow or lay asphalt, who knows. If we talk about “cruelty,” I don’t think a pig willingly wears a skewer for a barbecue, or a turkey joyfully jumps into a stew, or a lamb enjoys swimming in a pot, but I’ve never encountered any “heart-wrenching” comments about stew or cooking recipes. I can imagine what a tragedy this must be for people who consider creating a bonsai a form of cruelty, as they probably sit in a café, where they will place themselves on a chair made from “killed” wood, and are served a menu made from the same “dead” wood, and offered dishes made from countless slaughtered animals. Perhaps these people are hostile to every café and restaurant as well.

I really don’t know how convincing my arguments are, but in the 30 years I’ve been trying to create bonsai, I’ve never thought that a person working on a bonsai is committing any special or irreparable cruelty towards nature.