Open-heart surgery is certainly no picnic, I'm not suggesting that it is. It depends on who the patient is. If you're talking about an 82yo man with renal insufficiency, that's not exactly a person you're going to rush into surgery. But if you are a relatively healthy 67yo who smoked for a decade but not actively smoking, getting a stent is likely not your best option because your expected life expectancy is still fairly decent. The point is that many people are not getting both sides of the story because cardiologists act as both the gatekeepers and the interventionalists.