Ok, this one is going to develop as I write, because I'm really thinking out loud....
Time:
Many of the great masters trained with their uber great master less than 5 years, sometimes 2 or 3, but we assume there was daily constant training.
so, 3 years x 6 hours daily = 6 years @ 3 hours daily = 12 years at 3 hours every other day....you see where I'm going with this, modern working family man?
Sparring:
I have known many martial artists that didn't spar, but in a fight were efficient, effective and victorious. I've known black-belt kickboxers that got cleaned up in simple streetfights. I reject the weighting to the whole sparring argument, but not the argument itself. Sparring is the middle stage for most Martial Artists. The most dangerous people I know never sparred, they only fought.
Fighting Skill:
People continue to rate Traditional martial arts on fighting ability alone, and I think that is missing one of the great points of difference between. Ultimately, fighting skill is the common denominator, but discipline, fitness, problem solving and focus are other prizes one wins.
Learning to fight is easy, to my mind. 5 or 6 good fights and you'll he head and shoulders above most people on the street, if you don't get you ass kicked 5 or 6 times... To me, simply fighting isn't the measure, but the amount of superiority you can exercise, how easy you can make it.
Long Term Payoff:
So, what is it you get from the longer training? Skill? Understanding? The ability to Teach?
And here's one for you Sanjuro, with you being the 'control': Did you learn your Boxing to a certain level in the same time it took you to learn your SPM to the same level?
Alternatively, few years back when you were banging all the time, as opposed to now, have you added any skills since then? Fighting skills, or otherwise? Intellectually, I'm sure you continued to develop.
Lifetime Pursuit:
No, I still think TCMA offers a lifetime of training and experience, of which fighting is a big part, but not the only part. We go through stages: we fight ourselves to find form, we fight others to test our skills, and in the end, we come back to fighting ourselves again because we realise that is the real challenge - all in the pursuit of some kind of inner peace. Go figure...
Who ever said it was 'magic'?
People talk about TCMA like if it isn't the absolute superior skill, that enables any modern David to defeat any modern Goliath, it isn't valid. TCMA is just one path, one taken often by people who don't have the raw materials to start with, people who are looking for an advantage on terms they can relate to, perhaps to survive, in one form or another. Sport attracts a whole different mindset and individual.
TCMA isn't 'magic powers' which seems to disappoint lots of people, sadly...
What is being lost is not only the skill, but the teachers. Perhaps it is natural selection at work...perhaps its just the market economy at work, and some western sense of value for money, or perhaps its a cultural thing.
I guess what I'm contending is that yes, there are individuals that can be trained to become world class fighters in a few short years, no argument. Terrible good fighters, fair enough.
But, that has very little to do with the training of TCMA. What is the difference between an art and a sport? Art is in the doing, sport is in the competition?
I make no contention the two are exclusive to eachother, just to be clear.