Most important part of learning

[Bacon]

How many Krav Maga guys are also top MMA fighters? Yet I doubt anyone in their right mind would call it unproven, impractical or 'dying'.

Krav actually takes a lot of what is effective in nhb and mma and makes use of it. And the military version has seen effective use but in comparatively few instances. The civilian version is almost always hardcore Tae Bo for soccer moms and folks who want to seem hardcore by doing an art associated with the IDF.

There are very valid systems which teach self defence well, and you'd be right in claiming none of those system's proponents are top full contact fighters but they do have methods for training self defense which far outmatch TCMA's in situational, legal, and often technique.

So as far as king outside the ring TCMA fails there too.