I went back and forth on breeding mutts, various breeds, and crossing those breeds. I don't care so much about contributing to a breed because I'm not developing a breed and rarely have shown anything so had little established name for myself to sell to major breeders or be found by those wanting rabbits that meet show standards. Random rabbit x random rabbit though gets you random result. That doesn't just mean appearance. While people are looking at appearance for pets they are going to care long term about how healthy that rabbit stays, how many vet bills they end up with, and whether it is friendly or starts taking their arm off in the future. You can say how the parents are but that parent might be the single nice kit out of a litter of horrible rabbits.
The worst rabbits I ever tried to raise for pets were actually from the rabbitry of some of the most competitive netherlands around here. Some of the best ones I sold for pets were also netherland dwarf but from a breeder who simply loved making friendly, healthy rabbits while also showing. I bought her colors not recognized for show that she otherwise had few buyers for. I also had some netherland dwarf from a pet store that were quite far from type but had awesome personalities. I ran into the issue of no known health background quite quickly as my pet store purchased doe was the only one to die of pasteurella. I did not breed another rabbit with her influence even though Enki did not get his grand dam's illness. I sold lots of netherland dwarf x mini rex but from pedigreed animals with known backgrounds, well known rabbitries at least regionally, and they did have that combination of good health and temperament. I could tell people those things when listing the offspring. You can't when all you know is what you see of the 2 individual rabbits you have.
