Not surprising ski shops are seeing a lot more base and edge damage now. There are really two aspects of the issue, one with rental skis and the other with skis people own. Most damage I would blame on individuals due to attitude, knowledge, and or lack of intelligence.
With rentals, I'd suspect damage rates are much higher because many renters probably don't care as long as they think they won't have to pay for any damage they cause. Just a sign of the times we live in with a much lower ethical quotient than decades ago in a long list of ways beyond skiing and that especially is true with considerate attitudes of personal responsibility. Ski rental businesses could make a dent in those attitudes by requiring a deposit and on their contract listing what types of damage and how much a renter might be liable for plus offer modest insurance. With expensive demo skis that is even more important.
With skis people own, in part as noted more skiers are now off piste where more rocks lurk. Also it depends on how wealthy a person is and how expensive their skis cost. Obviously a rich person can just buy another pair of boards. And even an ordinary wealth person skiing on cheap used $150 skis is not going to care much versus if they are skiing new $800 skis. Of course old rock skis don't count. Beyond that there also seems to be many younger skiers that probably do care about damaging their skis, that ski locations I would avoid. On early season low tide fresh powder days many skiers seem to be oblivious to lurking rocks below surfaces. Like many if in areas they are not familiar with, have little understanding of where snow deposition is likely to be shallow versus deep enough. Thus any place that just looks white they cannot see below surfaces are fair game while I look at the same terrain and understand such is likely to be shallow.
My fat 2012 Rossignol S7 powder skis see much less skiing and are in even better shape than my bump skis I ride most on. Early season I am not one to ski off runs on fresh powder days unless I have confidence snow is deep enough.
I value my 2011 Dynastar Twister bump skis and now in their 8th season, are still in great shape. The bump runs early season do have a fair number of obstacles. The only rocks I ever seem to hit are small loose rollers underneath the snow and they rarely cause much damage. Usually fixed with a tiny amount of p-tex and edge filing out little nicks that I do almost every trip before skiing. Real damage is when one hits an immobile rock. Last time I had to use a shop to repair a core shot was maybe 2 decades ago. As a lower speed fall line bump skier I am very quick at avoiding rocks by being able to turn away or jump over them at close distance.
