My sort of roundabout point is that when fully immersed in the day job, it is easy to lose sight of the fundamentals
No, not when your day job is full-time instruction - those fundamentals are always at the back of your mind underpinning how you get the best from your student.
If your student is a PPLH then you will keep to the syllabus and ensure thorough briefing and constructive debriefing - if your student is a professional pilot (civ or mil) you expect more from him/her and can present more challenging scenarios, kept pertinent to their experience and ambitions.
If your student is a front-line mil pilot then you have to ensure they are up to the mark since the enemy (whether that be weather or incoming rounds) won't give them a second go with a sympathetic debrief.
Basic instruction is basic instruction but often that spoon-fed, cuddly stuff needs to be altered for more advanced levels. You still need to put the student first but you do them no favours by wrapping them in cotton wool - and most experienced pilots won't respect you if you try to treat them like a basic student.
When HC declares that he might actually have been wrong to jump on H500 (my skin is very thick so I don't need apologies) then we can consider the group hug.