I'm onboard with the thick-cut, and I'm another 'mangler' in the grocery store going through every package looking for the one with more meat than fat. Haven't had much luck lately. On the other hand, all that fat makes for copious amounts of bacon grease to be saved for later use. Oh yeah, pan-fried too, laid out one straight strip at a time.
But I cook mine soft, just barely done. I used to work in the campus dining hall at VT cooking bacon. For 3 hrs every Sat/Sun morning I'd do nothing but cook bacon, ~125 lbs/day. I cooked it the way I liked, some of the chefs would come by and give me compliments, others would tell me to put it back in the oven. To each their own