Good topic, good post.

For me, calling proficiency is overrated, but maybe I'm splitting hairs. My own statement would be to achieve "call confidence". If you are confident in your call, it can sound like an angry tomcat and work like a charm. To get confidence you have to practice with your call, and thus you tend to get good with it ... like I said, maybe I'm splitting hairs.

I really agree with your statement about not putting elk stink on yourself. I went through the same process of learning that all it did was interfere with my ability to smell live elk, and I really consider my sense of smell to be almost as important as my vision for elk hunting. That's one of the things that makes elk hunting different from deer hunting, smelling your quarry.

I would add - FLEXIBILITY! Reading these boards on all kinds of hunting, it seems like people settle in their minds on one simple idea - rattling bucks, hunting scrapes, using a 300 magnum or a 270, or bugling for bulls, etc. - and then begin to argue fiercely that anyone who doesn't do it "their" way is a moron. More than any other hunting I've done, bowhunting elk is a game of constantly amending your plan and trying something new. Last year, it rained and snowed on me for 11 of 13 days on a backpack hunt. I mean, it rained hard, for hours on end. Even with quality goretex I was wet at the extremities (hands, feet, and head) the whole time. This made it impossible for me to execute my main plan, which is setting up in an elk bedding area and staying put for 4-12 hours. I just got too cold once I stopped moving, so I had to invent a new hunting style. Judging that all the moisture made walking quiet, I stowed the calls and just stillhunted. I have never had so many shot opportunities before. I passed up 5 shots (only one came to calling) before I finally took a cow late in the hunt.
The moral is - weigh the specific conditions you're hunting under, and alter your hunting tactics accordingly.