This. I was always told this by my old kung fu instructor when I was in high school. It's better to be able to, say, hit really hard and well with one technique, to be able to apply it really really well, than to know a mulititude of techniques and only be "versed" in them. In other words, mastery of few things as opposed to being "sort of proficient" at a ton. Professionals always excel at and continue to train the basics.
I have two thoughts on this. First, I have been wondering what anyone here thinks of Charles Poliquin's "chinese elements" training. I am not sure what to think about it yet.
Basically, he does seem to agree that there are just certain types of people who won't ever excel at strength sports or bodybuilding. He also goes on to state that he believes that people who aren't adapting to a certain program are doing the wrong program for their body. Coach Sommer of Gymnastic bodies used to say the same thing. Some people NEED a lot volume to excel, while others get destroyed by it, and need less volume to get similar results. Some people need variety and others need intensity. Interestingly, I have been wondering if this is why the soviet style, SF style of "waviness" generates such good results. It checks all the boxes without overdoing any of them, so any type of person will likely see a decent degree of benefit from it.
Secondly, I don't know if this specifically applies to strength sports, but I have read that hard work only gets one ahead of the competiton until a certain level of professionalism or "elite-ness" is reached. At that point luck/chance play a much a greater role in determining who at an elite level will succeed over who.
Lastly, my own two cents:
I really really like the stories Pavel always included in his books of old time ("tyme"?
) lifters who just lifted heavy for a while at the end of their day, never going to exhaustion, etc. because it exemplifies: mastering the basics, lifting heavy and fresh and often, and sustainably. if memory serves me right some of them got incredibly strong doing so. Regardless of the differences between pros and amateurs, I do believe that being consistent with our goals in a sustainable way will allow us to acheive greater heights than we expect.