Some great points on this thread. It would appear to me that different people have different expectations from DJs. Many people really don't care about the format their music is played on and this is simply a sign of the times. I think another sign of the times is the route that some 'DJs' take on their musical journeys. In Ye Olden Days of Yore, in my experience at least, the soul nights around the country were run by collectors first and foremost. The whole ethos of the 'scene' was built on these people. It's simply not the case anymore at many venues. The "knowledge" is still the attraction for some, but for many it's simply a local UK scene with the likes of Philly, Chicago, New Orleans, Detroit, being of little interest and supplanted by people's (promoter/DJs) little worlds involving their venues and no interest in anything further afield.
I would make one further observation too, in my experience the 'DJs" who rely on bootleg records are usually the laziest in terms of the music. Many of them have no interest in the actual music, it's artists, it's history or it's legacy. They are usually the 'followers' who thrash popular 'available' records after some real collector/DJ has already either reactivated it (Kiss My Love Goodbye) or play releases that are easily obtainable (Sharon Jones, Nicole Willis) AFTER someone elses has sought them out and broken them to the dancefloor.
A couple of great examples of this are:
Mick Smith dropping Marvin and Tammi into his set at the 100 club
and
Dave Rimmer championing the Nicole Willis Timmion 45 a couple of years ago.
Instead of searching out similar 45s, the lazier DJs amongst the fraternity simply followed suit with the same records filling their sets.
The playing of bootlegs is often justified by the people who do it by the quote "It's what's in the groove that counts". That's just another lazy cop out by people who probably couldn't tell you where that quote came from!
Mark Bicknell's post earlier made a good point. Collectors who collect original records should be standing tall, not justifying themselves to people who can't be arsed to do it properly. The collectors are the bedrock of both the Rare Soul and Northern Soul scenes. Always have been and always will be. When the bootleg playing DJs have returned to their 'normal' lives once again, which they surely will, it'll be us, the collectors who are still here doing exactly what we've always done. Hunting out the 45s, filing them, DJing with them, cleaning them, taping them, sharing them with other collectors, trading them, etc etc.
Collectors of the world UNITE! Be proud of your crates! Take no prisoners! Long Live the vinyl anorak!!!