I am the opposite, i think poles just dont look right alot of the time, when people ski with normal length poles in the park they just looks dumb to me, then the park rats that ski with poles that are 12 inches long and do nothing. But as you said its personal preference.
As to poles being limiting, that statement is false to a point, huge alaska lines you see seth and sage doing, yes you need poles, normal bc lines no you dont, look at pep, andy, garrett r, jordans surface promo, all these guys are killing it just as hard as the next guy, but with no poles. Skiing is so great because there are so many different styles everyone is able to do what they want, people need to just this fude, neither is better or worse.