Super presentation! I am happy to say that by experience I totally agree with you. I like to SEE my streamer in the water. I would like to see your presentation on still water streamer fishing. Just one thing Charlie…..I like my streamers to ride hook up in still water and moving water. Ok I don’t care if people think I just fish hair jigs on a fly rod! Thank you for a great tutorial!
On the point about flies getting over-dressed, especially in regards to the streamer type of fly making, I tend to align with that point of view. And I don't know as to why the modern anglers do this. I've gone to the extent of making flies dressed with more material, as the modern convention would suggest, and seen what happens with those flies 'in the water'. One thing those heavier dressed flies can do a lot (when 'the current' hits the fly), is do stuff like conventional lures would do. Like with Colorado blades, which rotate when pulled through water. Or even crankbaits and twitch baits that wobble and do stuff under water. It's fine, but with fly fishing set up's line tangle and leader knots can happen way to quick (it's actually not a bad idea to use small amounts of weight on flies to prevent this from happening). Russ Madden paid attention to how the dumbell was tied on a Circus Peanut (dumbell is below shank, not above it).