Have saddle pads become the new saddle?

I truely belive that there are more choices in saddle pads today then saddles. What happened to the saddle pad just being a barrier between the horse and saddle to give a little comfort and protect the saddle from dirt?

It seems like it wasn't that long ago that a western rider would put a blanket folded in half under his saddle and an english rider would put a fitted sheepskin saddle under theirs and that was that!
Now we have ortho, equi, air, and god knows how many "fixer" saddle pads!

We have pads made out of every substance known to man kind, and in every shape, size, thickness and color (exept of course the size for my saddle!), and yet finding the right pad can be a headache and a stomachache!

Oh and lets not forget type! With no slip pads, and half back pads, and baby pads (to keep your saddle pad clean of course!), wither releaf pads, your main pad (why isn't this our only pad?) and theraputic pads ment to save yours and your horses backs, one could concivable have up to 4 pads on their horses backs at once all doing different things!

Ok, so why the sudden annoyance at saddle pads? Because my new saddle (if all works out!) will need one! I keep my saddle pads fairly simple, I have several english square pads, because they will fit under just about everything in a pinch ( like my new endurance saddle, I tested it out with my square pad folded in half under), a couple of fitted pads (one A/P and one dressage) a western pad (square simple LOTS of padding, too much actually) and two cloud nine pads that I would rather ride bareback then use (and we know how I do bareback! haha!).

So now that I need a new pad I am wondering, do I take a trip into saddle pad land and hope that I come back alive, or do I just buy a pretty western blanket and fold it in half and call it good?
The main questions are:
Do I want to go insane trying to find just the right pad? and even insaner wondering if I got the right one?
Do I spend that much on a bit of weird material I have never heard of before? I mean come on, I wont' even spend over a $100 on a pair of boots for myself!

On the other hand don't I care enough about my horses back to spend that much on a nice pad that will make her back feel all nice and cool and theraputic? (insert Lucy's comment: Umm it doesn't matter what you put under my saddle, a saddle is saddle and if it fits it fits and if it doesn't fit it doesn't fit, no saddle pad is going to make me feel any better about you strapping a hunk of wood and leather to my back and traversing the countryside.)
Actually Lucy the tree is made out of ralide, whatever that is!

Excuse me while I run from flying hooves!


Ok, back on track, we were talking about my buying a new saddle pad, oh yeah here is what I predict.

I buy a cheepy pad from horse.com or valley vet, probably a wester blanket, use that while I look for the "right" pad, and after weeks of endless searching relise that there is nothing wrong with what I am using and go with that!
Since I have now come to this conclusion one could assume it will spare me hours of researching saddle pads, but no that would make me not horse obsessed and if I wasn't horse obssesed I wouldn't be here talking about this. No, I will spend huge amounts of time researching something I will never buy!