Save your breath. Dan will never change. I'll stay out of it for the most part. I'd just like to address only the assertion that Dan made above:
if it was needed IN ANY WAY to strengthen hips or other such nonsense than I welcome anyone to compare the supposed benefits of it to others who never trained that way at all.
You are commiting a logical fallacy here. Just because you can train well without seiza does not render seiza meaningless as a training exercise.
As for your assertion that James and Big Tony do just fine without seiza, I suppose that depends on what you mean by "fine". Clearly by your definition they do. They sure can cut. In MJER, one of the things seiza teaches you is to keep your hips under you when you cut. Kinda hard not to when you are on your knees. This principle then carries over into standing forms. From what little I have seen of footage of James and Tony cutting online, it is clear that they do not use this principle. The upper bodies of both appear to lean well forward of their hips when cutting.
Now before anyone freaks and gets offended, I'm not saying they do it wrong. Just different. Throwing more of your weight into the cut seems like it might provide a more powerful cut. Heck I'm sure there are all kinds of kihon reasons within their systems which dictate such cutting, but I suspect MJER has its own reasons for not doing so.
Good to see you posting again Dan.
Charles Mahan
Iaido - Breaking down bad habits,
and building new ones.