It wasn't supposed to be an insult, but your response sounds like one.
It's just more comfortable to play the ride closer--moving it, one of the few primary parts of the kit, in exchange for an accessory (a tom), seems stupid to me--I don't know why so many drummers do it. It's not like you can't do rolls anymore either, if you set your kit up the right way. I've got three rack toms and have no problem doing a roll to the floor tom, and yet my ride cymbal is very close (I have an 8" tom above the hi-hat, and a 10 and 12 mounted from a cymbal stand--the ride comes out of my bass). When I'm at gigs though, I do usually only take one rack tom and one floor tom because toms are just extras and I don't feel like I need to rely on them to execute creative musical ideas.
And you know, that brings me to another point--I think it's really ignorant of you to consider a small drum kit to be a sign of a beginner (or a "trad jazz afficionado", which I suppose exempts you from me defending Buddy Rich, Max Roach, and, though it doesn't quite fit your "description", contemporaries like Peter Erskine, John Riley, etc.) Truth is, in a respect smaller kits are harder to play because they force you to be more creative. I can think of a ton of drummers though that don't even play jazz but kill others in their genre on a small kit. A few examples: Zach Danziger, Chad Smith, Bonham, even Gadd used a particularly small kit most of the time--and I of course don't have to list his credentials, being virtually the primary influence on all modern drummers today.
