It a major problem because you can get someone through the exam requirements using it, which then reinforces it as a teaching method and causes problems further down the line. That’s an example of someone’s “quick fix” causing long term problems and a lot of work to put right in the future.
Yes, but you're not putting anything "right"...this was an acceptable solution for a specific set of largely invariant task requirements. That acceptable solution isn't wrong it's just not going to work for sets of more highly variable task requirements meaning that the caster has to learn a new skill. This may be the capacity to vary behaviour to meet those changing conditions or, for exam purposes, learning another new, but largely invariant, solution.
I've read your comments on competition casting on the visualisation thread and I'm afraid I can't agree that this is an open loop process as far as I understand open/closed loops to mean anyway. Just because there is reactivity to the wind in performance does not mean this is an open loop process. Yes there is environmental interference but once you're up on that platform this is essentially just Bernsteins "repetition without repetition" ...boshing at the anvil.
and this is equally true of the tasks in an assessment. Even recreational casting probably sits closer to closed loop systems because we use recognisable repeating patterns, named casts, and feedback to meet the changes in environmental circumstances. These are the generalised motor patterns we have discussed elsewhere. As a consequence I don't think this is a distinction which matters much because, when were talking about introducing variability for teaching purposes, it is quite different to when we're thinking, or not thinking usually, about reactive micro variations in performance of a PULD at 40' a 170 casting stroke or a single spey.
We can use variability in different contexts to meet two quite different objectives. My personal philosophy has been to make sure that any caster starting out learns to vary their casting right from the beginning rather than waiting until they can perform the ideal cast and then learning to vary afterwards. This, to me, means being highly error tolerant in the early stages which is backwards to an orthodox "see fault - fix it" approach. In fact I think we can use these "faults" to promote adaptability which is why I take some comfort in that stiff wrist being held like that deliberately.