Good post Mary...
I am not a flying instructor (so I'm likely to be reminded that there's lots I don't know about flying planes). I was thinking about this very thread last week. It was my first occasion as PIC flying a Cessna Grand Caravan. (I have about 25 total time on them). As I was doing takeoff testing of the aircraft following modification, and precise recording of time was required, I took along an observer.
He is a 900 or so hour pilot, who does not fly regularly. I let him fly the circuit part for many of them, just to refresh. I watched all of the turns (albeit shallow circuit turns) with my feet lightly on the pedals. The ball would wander side to side, with not a motion into the pedals from his side. I commented this, and got an "oh yeah" response. The subsequent turns did not show any better technique. Not an unsafe situation of course, though my butt noticed.
However, this abdication of control of one of the three axis of control, is to me indicative of common piloting error/oversight, and should be flown with much more precision by the offenders - just for precision's sake. It seems as if there must be some unspoken threshold of yaw error before correction is considered necessary. So as these "offending" pilots are not using the pedals adequately, where is that habit coming from? Instruction (lack of) must be playing a part!
I felt complimented by a remark from my 15,000 safety pilot, while test flying a Twin Otter (in which I have less than 100 hours over 25 years). He said "You must fly taildraggers a lot".