But that's because(according to reports from sailing grounds in this thread) I'm a coastal sailor and don't get out of New England these days, and stay mostly on the coast of Maine. And we're heavy on older boats that could be steered easily with vanes. (I have a mizzen hanging off the back anyway)

It's the use I suppose, most of the boats are "local". Transient boats come from Southern NE. Of the boats that cross the Atlantic to get here, most are pretty big these days.

Most have APs of some kind from simple TP/WP for small and medium sized to under deck for the larger boats. For my coastal sailing in the last 30 years, I would guess an AP(TP and WP) has steered about 75% of the miles we've sailed with few problems.

Amp/hrs are the only problem for us, but in todays world of refrigeration alone, the AP likely isn't the issue for most boats.