There's a lot of opinion and personal preference, hopefully born of experience, among my musings on the subject, along with a few variations on the order of *wouldn't it be neat if this did *this* AND *that*....
I've picked tsuch knowledge as I have up along the way from others who've pointed me on the right path when I was wandering off on a dead-end alley or lost trail, and the price for that assistance is to share it with the next pilgrim and make their path a little better marked.
And so far as that goes, you've got some serious experience yourself, naturally enough resulting in some different attitudes and opinions than mine, since our experiences have happily not been identical. The other side of that coin is that you've also exhibited some pretty fair thoughts about what works and what doesnt, and lean real heavilly on those tools that nicely get the job done. That Randall of Squantos goes in that category, too.