This was something that came up in another thread, so it probably got missed by many people who weren't following that thread. But it seemed like a good topic for its own discussion, so I'm starting a new thread!
My viewpoint: Sparring should not be seen as a thing unto itself. It should be seen as a platform for training, just like Chi Sau is a platform for training. Everyone realizes that good technique goes to sh!t under pressure. Sparring is the opportunity to put a student under pressure and see what goes to sh!t. Then he knows what he needs to go back and work on. If you saw someone bobbing and weaving, breaking center, giving up their structure, etc in Chi Sau....wouldn't you point these things out as something to work on? Something that needs improvement? Why is it any different when it comes to sparring? Why does everyone get all offended if someone points out how they are losing their Wing Chun structure and technique when sparring? Are you training Wing Chun? Or are you training to be a good sparrer? Why do we have such a high standard for Wing Chun in our forms and drills and such a low standard for Wing Chun when it comes to sparring? Any good martial art should strive to train the way it fights and fight the way it trains. Sparring is a great environment to bring all those hours of training to the fight. But if you start being content with resorting to sloppy kickboxing, then you are wasting all those hours of training. Now, one might very well find adjustments and modifications to their Wing Chun that are more successful in sparring. That's great and how things progress and evolve! But if you aren't then going back and putting those modifications into your training, again you are wasting time and not training efficiently.
And I will assert that....yes....it should actually look somewhat like Wing Chun in action! I'm NOT saying it has to be "picture perfect" Wing Chun as trained in the forms and drills. But someone with even passing familiarity with Wing Chun should be able to recognize it....just like if they have even a passing familiarity with western boxing, kickboxing, or Muay Thai they would recognize those arts in the ring. I think that if you put a Wing Chun guy in a sparring situation with a kickboxer and neutral observer can't tell who is who...then the Wing Chun probably needs to work on his technique!
So really, the key question to ask is this: Are you training Wing Chun? Or are you training to be good at sparring? (general question for everyone)