Overhead catenary system deployment choices are like track system choices; they are an individuals own preference for what they themselves value most in the model implementation.
C-Track vs K-Track, that debate we know, and even there you will have folks arguing they are 100% convinced the other side is wrong and insane. Its a matter of what you yourself prefer to see, and what aspects you won't find problematic. Its all models, and all models are wrong from the reality, just varying in how they are wrong from reality. What 1 person finds looks horrible another would not care at all about. What one person finds worth the work, another person doesn't want to invest the time in to do all over the layout for what they optically get.
So it is with overhead catenary. If you look at photographs of electric trains , it is indeed very difficult to actually see the catenary cables, especially on video footage, unless the camera is very close to the track. Here with the camera close, one can see it, but imagine how thin that would be at H0 scale, to be proportionally scaled to the mast element thicknesses.
Once you are looking down from a helicopter view, which most of us see layouts from, it gets a lot harder to see those wires against the dark ground backdrop. So I can understand the view of not bothering with the stuff between the masts.. as from several feet away, it is not so obvious to may. Others find the overhead wires critical to realism, even if they are a bit thicker than 1:87 scale, the same way we put static grass on layouts that is quite often way too tall for what real world grass would be at scale. Each person has their own preferences.
Beauty is that even if you don't put up the wires, or if you do put up wires but don't want to run the pantographs 'in contact' with the wires ( more reliability, no wear on the pantographs) , there are solutions. Some locos have height adjustable automatic pantographs these days (ESU for example) where a CV can set the 'up position' and you are good to go. Others may be automatic but have a fixed UP level, so that the pantograph is intended to be in contact with the wires.
So one can adjust/install monofilament (fishing line) that is thin and holds the pantograph at a fixed height.
or one can use plastic parts fitted to other areas on the pantograph mechanism that restrict how high the pantograph will go... thus allowing running with pantographs up even without wires.
Pantofixer is one solution to installing a thing that will limit how far up the pantograph goes (be it servo driven or if you just have pure spring loaded pantographos):
https://www.stillertec.c...ahl-und-Einbauanleitung/So in the end, you can have any configuration you personally prefer - mast/no-wires, masts-wires no contact, mast-wires contact, or no masts or wires and still have pantos up. One thing is clear though, no one is wrong about what they prefer for themselves.
