...I feel I am being exctly the opposite as my thoughts on how to fly come from decades of experience and learning from experience, and not from the myopic world of ab-inito training,...
There's an interesting point lurking in there too.
On our Twin Comanche (2 x Lyc IO-320), I leave the props at 2400 rpm for approach and landing. In real-world operations, this has never once been a problem -- if I need to go around I simply push both throttles fully forward and climb without waking the neighbours: there's ample power available. The times when it has caused problems have been in training situations doing touch and goes. For a take-off roll, even from a rolling start, 2400 rpm makes a real difference to the length of runway required if I forget to push the props fine :blush:.
So I wonder if the insistence on "prop fully fine" before it's really needed stems from the needs of the training environment.