You say it best with:

“I would suggest that a more important dividing line for you to consider is the line between skill and method. How much do you rely on skilled people to select the right thing to do next…”

This is one of the biggest reasons that I am changing my company instead of changing my company. The development team here is placing too much emphasis on a development plan instead of improving the teams development skills or changing the team all together. Emphasis placed on plans restricts talented developers, and in this case, testers, and limits their creative abilities. IMO, without creativity, we lose.