There's absolutely a lot of legal strategy in developing claims. There are very good reasons that top firms hire specialized IP lawyers. All that is, however,

There's absolutely a lot of legal strategy in developing claims. There are very good reasons that top firms hire specialized IP lawyers. All that is, however, an aside. The original point stands: If this patent issues, any competing invention that merely contains all the elements of that broad independent claim, would be infringing. Those more-specific dependent claims are only a concern if you plan on prevailing in court against the broad one. As setting foot in a courtroom is a net loss for most innovators, the very existence of those dependent claims is essentially irrelevant.