Should the use of macrons be encouraged, discouraged or just accepted?
Picking an opponent and proponent at random, Cheryl Lowe says:
Macrons in most texts are too dark and create a distracting clutter on a Latin page, especially a page of connected text. [...] The second reason we don’t include macrons is because of their limited usefulness. [...] The reality is that the pronunciation of a vowel in a Latin word is determined as much by the consonants around it and whether the syllable is accented as it is by whether it is long or short.
While Richard LaFleur argues that macrons should be taught to all students:
I can't appeal strongly enough for trying our utmost, in teaching or learning ANY language, to reproduce as faithfully as possible the aural/oral experience of that language; but this is particularly important for Latin, whose literature was intended for a listening audience and whose writers, especially the poets, were often at pains to manipulate vowel (and other) sounds for artistic effect through the use of such devices as assonance and onomatopoeia.