[blackguardx]

This is why belaying a lead climber shouldn't be considered a casual activity. The belayer literally has the climber's life in their hands. In addition to violet jerks, the belayer needs to keep their hands on the belay strand even if hit by falling rocks.

Also, use of belay gloves can help a lot and I think is more emphasized in Europe than the US.

[BobaFloutist]

Sure, but any safety paradigm that begins and ends with "(people) should/n't x" is a bad safety paradigm across anything enough people do enough of. It's probably easier to compensate for weight differences with a tether or weights than to convince people to spend long periods of time on high alert with low chance of incident.

[physicles]

Indeed. When I mentor new lead climbers/belayers, I point out that lead belaying should feel about as stressful as lead climbing. If it doesn’t, you’re not paying attention.