No, it is inadequate at all energy levels. It's just good enough for your cheap, first decimal point approximations. If you want to know what is really going on in the system, you'll have to think a little harder.
Now you can continue in your ignorance, getting results that are good enough, but you will (a) never know what is really going on and (b) be flummoxed when a more complicated system frustrates your model.
Interesting that you put so much faith in "hackery." How do you know the high-energy physicists aren't just lying to you to get more grants?