I agree that often vacation visitors to Japan will not break even using JR Rail Pass. That is the reason there is JR Rail Pass. JR Rail Pass users are very small portion of entire JR riders, less than 5% and some old figures showed less than 1%. Also, majority of JR Rail Pass users actually end up not break even.

That said, as I am self-proclaimed train geek and maybe familiar with JR fare rules, condition of round trip discount, which fare portion discount apply, condition of connection discount, validity of fare, etc. However, even for local Japanese people who commute on JR trains every day fare calculations of JR trains is not that straight forward. Those English websites simply display single ride one way fare. Often does not take in consideration of routing validity, transfer discount, etc. Many those English websites do not know invalid routings.

For visitors who are not that familiar with Japan and do not speak the language, JR Rail Pass is convenient tool. I understand FlyerTalk is about getting first class seat for free, but regardless of if breaking even or not JR Rail Pass is convenient which rid of monetary concerns of how much entire trip will cost. You know how much JR Rail Pass cost and that is the cost of riding JR trains during the visit to Japan.