> Is text on a curved path considered a major “type crime”?

Don't lose sleep over it.
Type, letterforms, engravings, etchings, chiseled in stone...
setting words set on curves, arcs, angles is NO CRIME at all,
just BAD DESIGN and POOR TYPOGRAPHY are considered crimes.

from --
ARTS ET METIERS GRAPHIQUES 49
Charles Peignot, 1935. Issue number 49.
Legendary French Arts magazine published by Charles Peignot that represented the state-of-the-art in fine publishing in pre-war France.

Excellent example, Norbert!

My rule of thumb: Rotation is fine. Once you start changing the shapes of most letterforms, then things get ugly.

Brian, I'd remove the traps (like from the "W").

hhp

For your typographic conundrum --

Who would you rather be?

Notice that Peignot used a condensed typeface and generous spacing, both of which minimize the baseline angle problem.

The alternative is to use a curved envelope, so you get a curved baseline (and cap line). The drawback is that the distortion this causes to the letters is often more noticeable, not to mention ugly.

When I do curved type, I convert everything to outlines and adjust the shapes of the letters to fit the curve better, but as subtle as possible so it's not obvious. The goal should be to make it less noticeable than without the corrections. Wide letters are the most difficult.

What Mark said: adjust the bottoms of the letters to fit the curve. Leslie Cabarga talks about this in depth in his Logo, Font & Lettering Bible.

And/or use type that doesn't have flat bottoms. Like Helvetica Rounded. KIDDING!
No, more like a cursive Roman (usually -mistakenly- called upright italic).

hhp

I once had a teacher who told a funny story about type on a curve. Joe, Jared, Christian? Do you guys remember it?

I'd agree with what has been said. Sometimes type on a curve can be an elegant solution for spice to an otherwise bland design. On the other hand, sometimes it is just one more spice which isn't needed. It is about moderation.