Treating blood pressure strictly by the numbers is short-sighted because it does not take into account a person's overall health issues. Certainly it is far more important to aggressively treat someone who has advanced arteriosclerotic disease than someone who is otherwise healthy. Doesn't it make sense to be more aggressive in a person with a history of a previous heart attack or stroke, or who has diabetes, or smokes? Of course! So what took the medical profession to figure this out?
Every person is different and it should be obvious that their overall health should have something to do with creating a treatment program for someone with high blood pressure. What is an acceptable BP for one person may not be for another.