Apparently it's not entirely frowned upon, as demonstrated by the "light" loads sold by a number of makers. They won't make them if they don't sell. I suspect a number of people want to buy hunting rifles for their wives and children, but don't want to buy them again when they are able to handle more recoil. Light loads work very well there.
Light loads should work very well to reduce meat damage for those of us that like high-intensity (archaic term, I suppose) rifles, but get mostly close-in shots that can juice up the steaks pretty good unless shot placement is just so. I don't do that myself, but probably should. I do tend to stop adding powder to my loads when accuracy is acceptable in order to take it easy on brass and barrels.
