In terms of the POH procedures not always being optimal, here's an example pertaining to flaps on the Cheetah: the POH recommends no-flap takeoffs, but I was told by several Cheetah owners to take off with 10 degrees of flaps for best ROC, and have verified this myself. More generally, I guess I was trained to treat the POH as a recommendation rather than a Bible, and speak to the actual people who fly that particular airplane a lot to find out what works best.
This is how pilots get themselves killed I'm affraid. Although I agree that taking everything in aviation at face value is an equally dangerous game I would vet my sources carefully when it comes to other peoples ideas on what works and what doesn't. Over the years I have heard (and sometimes had recited to me from
convertees) some very convincing and equally BS stories told by "authorative" "senior" pilots (and even instructors) without a clue what they were talking about.
As mentioned in another post - the POH was developed by the (actual) people who created and tested the aircraft, and one should assume they know more about the aircraft than most owners combined. As for the use of flaps, or no flaps, I'm sure every imaginable scenario was test flown and graphed before the aircraft was certified.
I admire pilots like darien-I who after having had a problem reach out to learn more about what he/she could have done different. Those are qualities that makes a pilot better.
However, as none of us were there with you and we don't really know how you fly I would advice you find an instructor - preferably one that believes in POHs and knows the Cheetah - and go do some practise circuits with go-arounds. Or go practise some yourself, either from a safe altitude away from the airport, in the ciruit but from a higher go-around height, or at a runway with adequate remaining runway lenght so you don't hurt yourself in the process should you not achieve a good ROC.
Your reason for the close call can be many and doesn't necessary relate directly to any procedure in the POH. Even following a POH procedure can get you hurt if it's not done in a timely and accurat manner.