> Learning to handle combs/frames with a "top bar" will make for better "mainstream" beekeeper.


I agree that keeping several hive types can benefit one's knowledge and understanding of bees and hive management.     

On the other hand, it's my observation that many who *start out* with a TBH have been lead to overemphasize the role of the hive design, and underestimate the role of management practices.    Thus, they don't put a lot of effort into developing management skills, expecting things to just be easy in their magical natural hive.

Often these unrealistic expectations originate with the Eco-entrepreneurs who oversell the hive in order to sell hives.

Invariably, these customers spend their first season casting swarms, until winter, when their bees inevitably die from "the cold".  Few seem to persist more than two years, at which point their TBHs are silently retired to the garage.   

Calling them  "beekeepers" or "bee-havers" does not seem fitting.   I prefer the term "hive-keeper".

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