My understanding after spending a lot of time digging into and discussing this stuff was that playing better and increasing your win rate has a much greater eff

My understanding after spending a lot of time digging into and discussing this stuff was that playing better and increasing your win rate has a much greater effect than style of play (whether yours or your opponents'). So while your short term swings might be bigger, you'll have a lower chance of a losing month (or a longer slump) and make more overall by eking out every last drop of EV. It doesn't mean you were a bad player, but it sounds like you might have been avoiding some potentially +EV situations due to lack of comfort with trickier opponents/situations. That's fair enough if it worked for you--it's not at all necessary to play every situation perfectly to have a healthy win rate. Towards the end of my poker career I was playing mostly heads-up, which teaches you to be pretty fearless about exploiting any and every edge, and to get comfortable with aggression. But there was a point in my progression where I'd get thrown off as well. And even after I felt like I was pretty damn good, I knew players who were clearly head and shoulders above me, so it's all relative.