Neil, it is my thread. I have told you that it is not about instructors or instruction. If you can't accept that at face value, I have to ask you to leave it alone. And if you have the need, go start a thread of your own about how Lou Figueroa Is Anti-Instructor and leave this one alone.
As to your other point: I used to play a guy all the time who could, literally, blow the dust off his case and give me 9-7. The reason I suck when I lay off from pool for a few days is that I am just an average Joe. I don't have my own table, I play, maybe 10-15 hours a week, and then I go and jump off the deep end and play in the US Open or the DCC. Never, not once, have I claimed to be a great player. I'm just an average player who likes to write about the trials and tribulations of trying to play this game.
Over the years, many, many, many guys have written about how they can identify with my struggles, something I've learned along the way, an occasional insight I can share, or how something I've written just "rings true" because I can put a sentence or two together about what it's like to try and try to play pool, a tremendously difficult game, a little better one day than the day before.
That's it. That's what it's about.
Lou Figueroa