The crap is not the systems but the people who keep implying that one system is better than the other without any real proof of such.
I love the "there are shortcut but those take practice" lines. If pratice is required, then there are no shortcuts. Practice, practice, practice.
Do you honestly believe that?
Ok. Since I love to post these BET IT type challenges then here is one for you.
You and I both get a C-player.
You tell your guy to practice banking for one hour and I will use my hour to teach my guy a banking system.
After that hour we will set up twenty bank shots and if your guy makes more of them then you win the bet. I bet that my guy will make more banks than your guy will. Furthermore after that hour if we tell them to go and practice for 24 hours and then do it again my guy will demolish your guy, it won't even be close.
The reason? My guy will have learned a shortcut that allows him to get in the right position to make just about any bank shot. So with some practice he can develop and tune his delivery since he is not guessing where to stand. Your guy will still be guessing on most of his bank shots and therefore will require a lot more time to refine where he needs to stand for every DIFFERENT shot he takes - once he finds that place then he will have to practice it even more to burn it into his memory. Then once burned in hopefully he won't be faced with one that isn't in his memory and have to improvise (guess).
I use the banking systems because they are 100% geometrically correct.
As for CTE I personally feel that it's BETTER than GhostBall also because it gives me personally a solid framework to use when I approach the shot and I can treat all shots as practically the same. For me personally it works like this and therefore I make more shots and make "tougher" shots more often.
And yes I have to practice using CTE because I want it to become a fluid part of my game rather than a mechanical one. It is my opinion that CTE gives me a shortcut to better shot making.
As for shortcuts in general - if Buddy Hall comes up to you and gives you something that it took him years to develop, something that you might never develop on your own, then you have just received a shortcut. Is it enough that Buddy gave it to you to make you a better player? In a small sense yes, the very fact that you now know what Buddy knows makes you better BUT that doesn't mean you can DO what Buddy does with it. THAT is where practice comes in.
Rafael Martinez, Danny Medina, and Jose Parica each taught me something about playing pool that is NOT found in any book or DVD that I have ever consumed. They each taught it to me from a professional, this-is-what-I-do, perspective. I even complained to Jose that I can see him doing what he was showing me but I couldn't hit the ball that way. He just laughed at me and said when I play enough I develop the touch.
And that is everything right there. IF you play enough then you will develop "the touch" but it has to coupled with knowing what to do otherwise your touch will be handicapped by a lack of knowledge.
You can run a million miles in the wrong direction and eventually you might get where you are going. Or someone can give you directions and that puts you on the right path and the way is much shorter and more fruitful.