Vonsgardens

I'll weigh in. A flawed tree is a tree who's total sum doesn't allow you to overlook the obvious faults- they don't have Jizz (an old Uk birdwatchers (twitcher) term). To writ, some of the great "famous trees" of Japan are so badly flawed as bonsai that if they didn't have the aura of great age and status (and generally scale) you would look at them and go 'bad bonsai". But because they have the aura, the Jizz, they give a feel that everything about them is right and you overlook the obvious flaws (many of which include reverse taper). They speak to you.

Good homegrown bonsai speak to you beacuse they too have "jizz"- look at Vance Hanna's 30 year old black pine from seed in the gallery (among many others) or JVC's juniper or many of the ither trees that have a degree of provenance- they speak to you. It isn't formulaic- if you want that look at the cookie cuter trees out of asia for the box store market.

On that note, I'll go back to grading essays before my pen injures the graduate students.
John