I assumed that you were going to spout the established doctrine about how anyone acting from HJ seat or later should automatically raise any unopened pot to take a shot at stealing the blinds. I was all prepared to offer an dissenting opinion when I clicked on the article, only to find that you had pretty much taken my exact position in regards to defending blinds. Not only do I not feel that it's always necessary to defend my blinds, I also don't feel compelled to always try to steal the blinds
That's not to say that I don't ever defend or try to steal the blinds. Once I feel I've established a tight/aggressive image at the table, I'm often going to open my game up some and try to pick of the blinds once every so often. Likewise, if I notice the same player, that normally limps or min raises from every other position, habitually raising to 4x from CO against my blind, I'm going to eventually play back at them. In both cases, because of having a tight image and not showing a regular tendency to try to steal or defend blinds, I'm almost always going to be given credit for a strong holding.