No Input breeding has been around forever.. and each generation of guru promoting it seems to forget.
Ma Nature does it. Ma Nature is a wonderful selector of survival traits.. and not much else. Not much else matters to her.
It is no accident that widely dispersed and genetically dissimilar feral cattle herds have eventually ended up with a very similar phenotype. While that phenotype is very good at survival.. I don't generally see them as what producers or consumers will want in the long run.
I don't believe in nursepen livestock.. but, I do think there is a compromise. I do think it takes a capable manager. Management is what separates a modern program from the ancient model of letting them fend for themselves and eating the surplus.
No input is fine for simple meat production. Quality Beef production needs management and thoughtful use of input.
I look at feral horses the same way. The phenotype is admirable as a survival model.. but.. I don't want to ride one, and I don't want to look at one standing in my pasture.
shrug. I see a world of difference between Ohlde's program and Pharos.