I'm one of those who advocate stopping at Orisson even though I myself easily can walk from Saint Jean to Roncesvalles in one go.
But, said advice is not about what
I can do, and it's not about what you can do. It's about expectations of those people that read your advice!
What you are essentially doing by poh-poh'ing a stop at Orisson, is telling every out-of-form, slightly overweight person with ill-fitting boots and a heavy backpack, that they can easily make Roncesvalles the very first day.
You may be trained, and I may be trained, and those out of Le Puy or the other French Routes will be in shape by then, but there are those who arrive at Saint Jean, woefully unprepared and jetlagged. People who perhaps have not walked before and thus have no way of judging what is best for them.
I have seen far too many people arriving at Roncesvalles absolutely knackered and/or with problems with their feet or knees that would follow them all the way to Santiago - if they didn't give up before reaching their dream. You may even be promoting a few heart attacks - just try looking at all those little memorials along the ascent, people who died on that ascent. Coincidence?
Like with quite a few other things, it is best to ease into things - in stead you advocate untrained people taking the hardest of all the bloody
Brierly stages in one go, the very first day.
I repeat: this is
not about what
you can do - or did. It's about not giving untrained couch potatoes expectations that they cannot, and should not, live up to.