Pasteurization kills helpful bacteria and denatures proteins required for all sorts of food products. You cant make blue cheese, gruyere, authentic keifer etc. without raw milk.

Obviously there are risks involved. It's a tradeoff. I dont see how anyone could defend the position that it's just absolutely bad.

You can make blue cheese with pasteurized milk. The distinguishing feature of blue cheese is the mold, which is added to the cheese, not from the milk itself. There are kinds of blue cheese that are made with raw milk, but it's not all.

How many people in NYC that are buying raw milk do you think are doing so to make cheese or kefir?