Veg
Just like you said “For every strategy for gains, there is always someone who gained in a different way”.
For me it was the opposite: I was in a girth plateau for a long time, and only when I started doing 2 sessions a day instead of 1, I broke the plateau and gained 0.3 an inch in girth in 1 month. (I’m now on the second month of this new routine and haven’t measured yet)
On top of the fact that we have contradicting routines working for different people, there is also the many other parameters that you can (and should) add to the equation if you want to be as scientific as possible. (How long have you been doing it for, how long have you been in a plateau, other changes in your body that might effect your gains, a different grip or any other seemingly small detail that might be of significance, etc.)
Sometimes it’s frustrating that we don’t have more concrete knowledge.
So until there will be a real scientific research into PE, we can only go a certain way in really understanding it. And maybe it will prove to be such a complex and individual process that we will never know for sure?
Having said that, I do think there is a lot of great PE info that originated from this sharing of ideas in internet forums, and it’s a beautiful example of the resourcefulness of humans (or should I say - men? :) )