Just saw this thread after a few days absence from my keyboard, and without reading through all 22 pages I have a very similar (hoping it was not brought up in the 20 pages I did not read) issue just like this one!
In the recent past (well, most of my 20's) I was involved in amateur diesel mechanic activities on pickup trucks. I was on several forums, and I watched the craze on the bigger forums of new people coming on and asking "how do I make my truck smoke more?". This was very common on the bigger forums, and people got laughed off smaller forums/tighter knit communities for asking such questions.
You may ask, how does this relate to the subject of this thread- WELL, I watched the diesel craze from the beginning, to where it is now. Before there were 3 mainstream diesel magazines, before there were countless forums on the internet, before everyone was out to make huge HP and TQ from engines in trucks supplied by the Big 3. People wanted a lot of black smoke, it was 'cool'. Being honest, I went through that phase too, though I grew out of it pretty quickly.
Black smoke from diesels got the EPA on the backs of the people who make and sell these trucks. Emissions controls way way stricter than close previous years have been enacted over the past 8 years. It sucked. It still sucks. It drove up manufacture cost, and cost the end user mileage that diesels once touted over similar gasoline counterpart.
With all that said, I could see the "cloud chasing" just being more ammo (regardless of people blowing their hands and faces and mods apart) for the FDA to have against something that has helped myself, people of this forum, and countless numbers in the states and abroad.
Just my

and how I see this subject. I am not really for or against cloud chasing as I feel people should be able to do whatever they wish with their lives/what they choose to do. Within reason of course.