My friending policy is based off of what I get out of that person's journal. If I friended it because they post a lot of great screencaps or something...no, I don't really care if they friend me back.

If I friended them because I thought they seemed like an interesting person and I might develop a nice LJ relationship, but they don't friend me back....then I usually bow out after a while. (Unless I still enjoy reading what they write, then I stay and adjust my view of that journal). But I definitely don't view it as flouncing. (And honestly, who would know anyway?)

I do not automatically friend back everyone who friends me. I take a look at their journal and see if I'm interested. Someone who posts nothing but quizes everyday doesn't get friended back - I don't need those cluttering up my flist if I'm not getting other interesting content from that person.

I've been thinking of trimming my flist myself, and I totally hear you on the "angst" of it, because yeah...it's tricky stuff.