Whoa! Lots of pointed, even ad hominem, attacks on the OP and his post.
Many of those who accuse him of being judgmental are themselves quite judgmental.
Many are also fixated on his comment about the stand ring being off, while ignoring his other major points.
Few, in the midst of their dismissiveness, evaluated his two central, practical concerns —
1) How is it that his friend, who is incredibly inactive, closes her rings, especially the move and exercise ones?
and
2) Why do his hour long uphill walks register as only 19 minutes?
He's also right that his friend is living an unhealthy lifestyle and is unfit. If that’s being “judgmental”, it's with good reason and good concern.
Clearly, she is in poor health or poor condition if she tires so readily even on a walk around the block! (One also wonders what the sit. is that a 22-year-old can spend all day watching TV.)
Now, it is true, demonstrably so, that his post's title was sweeping and unfounded. The activity rings are hardly “pointless”!
To directly address his concern about the closing of rings and quality of health, perhaps his friend has set her daily goals so low, it's easy for her to close them!
That’s a key variable. If that's what she's doing, it refutes his key piece of evidence for believing that closing the rings is a pointless measure.
It'd be interesting to find out what her (and his) cardiovascular fitness measures show. VO2 Max, resting HR, EEG, HR recovery. I'll wager they'd show she has a problem. Given that, and their friendship, the OP should ask her one day…
Those other indicators add key info and reinforce the value of the Watch as a fitness measure.
By the way, demanding the OP offer solutions to the problems he raised is silly — Apple is a multi-trillion dollar company with some of the best and brightest. They should solve these issues not the OP.
His being a veteran and a combat medic is relevant — it helps show he knows what fitness and health are. Instead of acknowledging that, it became most grist for the attack mill!
Oh, one final thought. The Move indicator does have serious problems — in certain circumstances. A family member is a knitter and racks up big move “points” while knitting. I've been able to close my move ring by simply using my iPad and moving my hand or fingers around. But we take that into account.
After all these years, the Watch should know better!