As I have never needed to do a short/mid-haul flight on BA without a TATL attached, this doesn't have any relevance to me. Also, since I don't have any vacation plans to make right now, when fare sales are at their most extreme, the fact that there happen to be fare sales right now is also completely irrelevant. I refer you back to my previous post and ask you to actually think about what I wrote.

For the Nth time, the answer to the original question is "to each his own." There is no single approach that makes the most sense for every traveler.