Well, it would seem it's a bit of both. Like Lt. Frank Drebin says, "it depends on the situation". I've always felt a GOOD bypass (one that leaves your un-effected tone unaffected) was more important than true bypass. The ProCo Rat and any of the superb stompboxes made by Durham Electronics would be excellent examples of non-true bypass pedals that instead have a high quality buffered bypass. If you aren't generally plugged into some elephantine mess of a pedal board with every fuzz box known to humankind interconnected via several kilometers of Radio Shack cable, then you're probably okay. I generally have less than five pedals on my board at any one time with a mix of true and high-quality buffered bypass action, so I figure it's probably The Bueno either way. And I'm totally right. It's just that in these modern times there are so many pinhead, forum-rat, know-nothing loudmouths spouting off on the internerd about their fanatical devotion to true bypass that independent (or "boutique" if you're nasty) pedal makers have to use TB if they expect to sell pedals to the masses. Hence, true bypass is now far more bullshit marketing tool than actual quality pedal design feature. The only pedal-making dude I know of that has been bold and righteous enough to go against this tide of foolishness is the aforementioned Alan Durham. He's a bit of a hero really, and his Sex Drive pedal is fucking brilliant.
So anyway, there are some fine and just arguments from highly knowledgeable people going both ways. If the geekier aspects of the True Bypass Argument appeal to you then check these out:
"He had in fact wanted to play tenor saxophone from his youth after hearing John Coltrane play on Miles Davis's album Kind of Blue at age 19, but his asthma prevented this from happening. Sharrock said repeatedly, however, that he still considered himself "a horn player with a really fucked up axe."
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