I tend to agree with this for players that play often, dedicating two or three years to quality table time, which isn't considered 25 games of 8ball every month in a league.
Just thinking....it seems that muscle memory for a consistent stroke is probably developed first, and could take years, then the aiming begins to develop due to the stroke being more consistent. They are probably trying to develop at the same time, but repetitive muscle memory is quicker for the brain to grasp than recalling numerous shot images (CB/OB angle and pocket relationships). Those shot images get stored into memory, which at first (while you're developing a stroke) includes many unsuccessful shots as well as a few successful, so it takes a while for the brain to build a good data bank of successful shots.
After you finally get your stroke to be somewhat consistent, you begin to pack more successful shot images into your brain. So with a consistent stroke, aiming can develop quickly. But I also think it can work in reverse -- a consistently accurate aiming method could quickly help develop a consistent stroke.
I agree with you completely. Here's a golf analogy:
I was a decent high school golfer. I was offered a golf scholarship which I turned down for various reasons.
Later in life I picked up golf again and was playing well. My irons were on, my driver was great and I was a great long putter and a terrible short putter. After a round that I shot 1 over par and missed 3 very short birdie putts, I decided to 'fix' my putting. I worked for hours on it every day and talked to my mentor and he helped me develop a very solid, very accurate putting stroke.
Then I couldn't make a putt. Any putt. Long, short didn't matter. I was putting so poorly I found myself lagging 5 foot putts to the hole and hoping for gimmes.
Long story short I finally realized that my original putting stroke was so loose that the ball could go anywhere within 3 cup widths at the hole for a 10' putt. So as long as I read the green within a foot or so I had a 33% chance of making the putt. For longer putts the % went down but I still made a lot of them.
Now that my stroke had tightened up, the slop in my stroke was much tighter, so I had to read the green more accurately or else the ball had zero chance to go in! So if I read the putt wrong by a cup width, I missed the hole by a cup where before I made just enough of those to think I was a good putter. And I was terrible at reading the greens! Then it took me several months of hard work to relearn everything I thought I knew about reading greens.
In pool, I've seen the same thing. Straighten out my stroke and some shots I can't make, because I never aimed them properly because my 'instinct' aim allowed for whatever stroke flaw I had. Backward cuts with extreme outside English. I can make those if I 'feel' it. If I aim those shots and shoot them with no English, I can't because I'm too used to aiming in the wrong spot.
That's why I'm on this aiming system kick. I don't think my instinct game will hold up under pressure as I age and don't get to play as often because it's very susceptible to Self doubt. So I'm rebuilding it by changing my stroke fundamentals along with my aiming fundamentals. So far so good. I'm not back to where I was before I took 10 years off but I'm coming along nicely.
Poolology is a great objective system. I love it.
CTE is a great system from what I know so far and approaching it with a completely open mind and a feeling of: "Oh, so that's when the magic happens" is really beneficial. There are still enough holes in my knowledge that I can't use it for every shot yet, but what I can do with it is like magic.
There are some shots that are stupid easy with CTE that are extremely difficult with any other system. Including poolology. And CTE the way I do it - which I'm sure is not correct - has a pivot for BHE built in. So I routinely fire these super gnarly looking shots with extreme inside or outside English and leave my opponents shaking their heads.
Last week at leagues one of my teammates - who is in that 650-700 Fargo range missed a moderately difficult back cut shot off the rail. After the game he said to me, "You would have just jacked that in with high inside and gone 4 rails for perfect shape. How do you do that?" So I tried to show him how I aim and pivot and he shook his head and said, "that doesn't work for me."
I hope someday to have a beer with everyone in the aiming discussion forum and compare notes. There is a lot of knowledge and different perspectives and experience here.