Imagine, however, if Chouinard had sold his piton business to some generic manufacturing concern. They would not have had the creativity to imagine "clean climbing" methods, nor would they ever have been personally inspired to keep the mountains in a pristine state.

You could tell a similar horror story about what would have happened if anyone had bought Google in say 2001 or 2002. The ethic of "clean search results" would probably never have become the industry standard.

Chouinard was neither the inventor nor the sole proponent of clean climbing, merely one of the most influential. Before it swept the US climbing community clean climbing already had a substantial history in Europe, especially in the UK. A UK climber, Royal Robbins, for example, manufactured artificial chocks several years before Chouinard and also pioneered clean climbing techniques in the US.

That being said, he did have a huge impact, and it's probably for the better that he retained personal control of the company for as long as he did.