Interesting post, that, Anth. I must confess to not yet having made the time to read what was in the Doc's link.
I don't know if you meant it to - and whether you did or not isn't probably all that important - but for me, your post raises the question of why we punt. And I guess that it's - at least partly - down to a combination of factors, including our background, age and attitudes.
My attitude towards punting was, and still is to an extent, conditioned by my conviction that no woman would ever fancy me And by the attitudes of my parents who were very religious. Prostitution was never discussed at home but I know that, if it had been, it would have been dismissed - in voices that brooked no argument - as sinful.
So I was incredibly surprised to meet - in my mid-30s - the woman who became my OH and who seemed actually to like me. Eventually, we split up; but, because of the way my parents had brought me up - marriage was 'till death do you part' -, I didn't start punting until over 18 months after the OH and 'my successor' had pissed off elsewhere.
And when I was punted, I was, and still am, very much on the 'vanilla' end of the punting spectrum. Okay, I've had some experiences - never a 16-man gangbang, though!
- that were beyond my wildest dreams when I started punting but I must confess to never having had any thoughts about the social class of the SPs I've seen.
If I have an enjoyable time with the lass - and that may not go as far as having a 'fun' time with her - then I'll go away happy and doubtless return to her for more of the same soon.
My story is similar in that I met my main O/H in my mid-30s, and we eventually split up and after that I started punting for sex, but my story is somewhat different.
Due to my major fetish I was visiting women to give me a thrill by kicking me from a much earlier age, and stopped when I met my O/H. Not on the date we met, but about a month afterwards. She provided me sex and supported my fetish and we got married. As it went on though, I felt she resented kicking me, didn't appear to enjoy it, only did it when we were about to have sex not spontaneously like she did from the start (when she didn't do it hard, but used to footsie me regularly under the table).
In addition I had started looking at clips online of more hardcore activity and felt like taking part. The only difficulty was not getting caught, and that often means "no marks". But as time went by I just started regularly having such "sessions".
The woman I eventually broke the punter "sex" duck with was not booked with sex in mind, and had actually replied to a reverse booking I had placed 7 months earlier when I was still together with my wife. I decide to have a "second round" and went through those who had replied to my R/B but I hadn't booked first time around, and she was one and we met, and it was just spontaneous, on the floor of my private office which I used to host an outcall.
After that, I continued to arrange bookings for fetish activity but only had sex with that particular escort, as it felt right for me to remain "monogamous" on my own side. Only the following year it became a more regular occurrence for me.
I was generally preferring to make longer bookings, to spend time with the woman having a drink or eating a meal as well as the activity. It is what suited me. We always used to chat about various things. In the case of that particular one, I felt she was taking the place of my wife who I was missing badly. No regular woman would ever want to be in that position - they hate the idea of being a sub for your ex, but escorts don't care, as long as you pay them.
Going out on dates with one, at a special social rate, is something I can enjoy. Being in a proper relationship with one - well that's a different matter, I guess.