talmid, you ask a lot of good questions and make a lot of good points.
It seems anyone who claims to shoot using this method says simply to pay no mind to the bow and arrow, just concentrate on the bullseye and shoot.But in reality you could stare right at the target and point the bow at the sky, the ground, or anywhere in between and it isn't going to hit unless it is pointed in the right direction!
You could also have that arrow pointed right where it needs to be and not have correct form which is going to though the arrow off. Or you could have a big mismatch in your equipement.
If you are starting you need to start with good form. To tell you the truth, I'm not 100% convinced that there are many people out there that shoot 100% instinctive. There is some real conditioning involved with shooting. I call my method conditioned instinctive. It most definetely did not start out that way, it kind of evolved to where I know how everything needs to be lined up through conditioning without realy looking at the arrow.