> One point to this debate is also clear,  there is a lot of arbitrary thought going on both side about what resistance is

Hi Charles
I see one of the most significant problems is that people have a very loose grip on what evolution is and does. It isn't magical. It has produced an incredible variety of creatures, but there is a finite set of possibilities. Not: "Anything is possible." For example, some traits are variable and some are not.

Geneticists who take a
developmental approach to evolutionary problems are traditionally interested
in explaining two complementary aspects of development—canalization and plasticity. 

Canalization refers to the resistance of development
to genetic and environmental variation: organisms can maintain a typical
phenotype in spite of quite different genotypes and environments. 

Plasticity describes the way developing organisms can react to different
conditions by producing a change in phenotype: the same genotype can
produce several different phenotypes. Plasticity and canalization both
show that genetic variation and phenotypic variation can be decoupled.

Genetic changes are not necessary for all evolutionary change:
epigenetic and behavioral inheritance systems and self-sustaining networks
of ecological interaction can do a lot, although usually the genetic system
becomes involved too. 

You should remember that it has been the search for the
genetic philosopher’s stone that has directly or indirectly led to many of
the findings that have begun to undermine naive beliefs in genetic wizardry.
Genes are no longer seen as the sole source of hereditary information.

Jablonka, E., Lamb, M. J., & Zeligowski, A. (2014). Evolution in four dimensions, revised edition: Genetic, epigenetic, behavioral, and symbolic variation in the history of life. MIT press.

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