Savvy-I agree with most of what you are saying.
I also agree with the part about not practicing enough to be a bad answer...although...
when I tell students about how long to practice technique, I chose one, and without saying anything, toss a focus mitt at them.
When they catch it, I ask them "how many times did you practice catching something?"
"from the time Daddy sat down with yuo on the floor and rolled a ball at you , and put your little hands on it, to eventually catching it on a bounce, to flyballs, etc,etc.
How many times was that?
So, how many times do you need to practice something before it becomes a natural reaction? Under stress?"
Did you ever see a guy bat a line drive right at the pitcher, and the pitcher catches it? I could never do that. But, I am not a baseball player, nor have I put in anywhere near the time practicing catching.
So you need to ask a question-how much do you practice a technique before you decide that you are practicing an inneffective technique, and disgard it?
I look at it this way-if I know people who can use it-really use it, then I think it may be worth my time. But if it's a "Fantasy Island" technique,
then yeah, I chuck it.
Like when I trained kenpo-there were so many techniques that were either fluff, or fodder, so I no longer practice them.
Same with Hapkido and Jiu-Jutsu.
Why on Earth do we do techniques against a handshake?
I asked my Kenpo teacher that once and he laughed and said, "Maybe the guy owes you money!"