Well you're not really pimping Rippetoe your pimping a 5x5 way of training. Rippletoe is just a short hand for the 3x5 same weight a lot of beginners would start with. It's not the only thing Rip used and he certainly didn't hand the same program to everyone.
Now I think someone is going to benefit always from something vs. nothing
but in general I think any kind of short periodization is a inappropriate for beginners (they would do better with long linear periodization but that has serioud drawbacks too). The kind of volume changes I spoke of before are especially inappropriate but for a beginner the beginning cycle of that program is too short anyway. But frankly why stop loading the bar after two weeks or three weeks or anything else when you could keep on doing it for several weeks more. Just not optimal, or even good, for a beginner. imo and periodization of this sort is not even needed but there are better methods than the short blocks for novices. Need to keep it simple.
As far as putting Rippletoe against FI I think you don't really understand what I am saying. There could indeed be a person at a place in his/her training where the FI would be better. What I am saying is they simple are completely different and one is better for a beginner than the other.
I have no problem, myself, with recommending the same shit all the time
. But then again I don't post in places where I have to contend with 100 opinions of 14 year olds.
On the Rippletoe, Terry, there is no set time on program. You go til you compeletely stagnate on all the lifts. If you eat your ass off you should get great results.