I guess there's a big difference between one skilled person using checklists to remind himself, and when a "checklist" is really an excuse to throw in 10 layers

I guess there's a big difference between one skilled person using checklists to remind himself, and when a "checklist" is really an excuse to throw in 10 layers of design-by-committee. If you're one person who is developing your own intuitions and developing checklists to remind yourself of insights, it probably works pretty well. When you're considering checklist item number n you'll bring your acquired experience and intuition to bear on the checklist item, but if you didn't codify it in a checklist you maybe would have just completely forgotten to check criterion n.