It’s funny, I always hear people berate granite being used for kitchen countertops but I never understand why. Granite has to be about the most practical of choices for counter-tops. It’s smooth and easy to clean, you can place a hot pan on it without burning or marking, it doesn’t scratch so you can cut on it, you have to try hard to chip it. Compare this with really poor choices for kitchen countertops like Concrete or Soapstone or Marble with which you basically can’t do any of the above because they are all fairly soft. Usually fads involve things that have no practical reason for being used but are stylish at the time. Since granite is very practical and has been used in various forms for building throughout civilized history it’s quite a stretch to call it a fad.

This thread seems to be mostly concerned with style in which case I would predict that most of the ideas being presented are FADS.