In my gym we talk about the technician phase and the practitioner phase of training. The technician learns techniques and hones them to perfection although he/she may not be a master of application. The practitioner has understands timing rhythm, and application.
Often, in traditional arts students spend far too much time in the technician phase. That is people spend too much time drilling in unrealistic ways which might have great value for a time, but ultimately do not provide the student with the feedback necessary to become a practitioner. In progressive arts people enter into the practitioner phase too early. That's is too much heavy sparring and competition before developing a full skill set which leads to relying on very basic and limited skills just to survive.
Conclusion: People who spend a year or two doing solid traditional training and make the move to more progressive training techniques will be better fighters on average than those who strictly follow the traditional training or the progressive training.