The hardest routes and boulders

Udo Neuman, famous for the his "Performance Rock Climbing" book back in 1993 and for his Boulder WC videos, is keeping track of all the 9a routes and 8B+ boulders. This is of course an impossible job also due to all down gradings. The list includes 154 routes 9a and harder and 198 boulders 8B+ and harder. (Based on historical down gradings one can assume that within some ten years maybe 130 of each category are still making the list.) The most striking conclusion that can be drawn from the list is the slow progress in grades. During the last 16 years, the top level of bouldering has increased one or two grades and for routes it is the same if we exclude Ondra and Sharma. At the same time, the number of "world class" climbers has increased extremely fast during the last few years. During 2012, I estimate that close to 90+ guys have done 8B+ and 60+ guys have done 9a. These numbers might also suggest that it is actually to many climbs on this 9a/8B+ step and that some actually belong one step higher or lower. You would assume to see a grade pyramid but it looks like a sharp top is missing besides the beautiful changing 9b+ pillar of Ondra.