I think the real key is learning to do both, understand the details and how to apply them to a given situation but also trusting your gut in that application. The better we understand how the individual specifics(food, air movement, proximity to rut, bedding, water, terrain) affect deer movement at particular times of the season, the more accurate our gut decisions on the location to hang get. Let's say you find a buck you want to hunt, the 10 days to 2 week leading up to peak breeding, as a general statement, are arguably the best time to catch him on his feet. Again as a general statement, his core area is likely to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 600 acres. Could be more or less but we are just trying to narrow down our decisions. The does are going to be moving from bed to food. The buck is going to be moving from doe group to doe group. If we know where the food and does are we can then look at the maps to try to isolate or pick out any spots that pinch the bucks travel. Let's say we spot 5 potential locations, can we or how do we hunt them? Now we are down to factoring in air movement, access, and weather conditions. This is where gut instinct is going to come in. For a bowhunter, we have reduced 600 acres to five 20-25 yard circles we expect our target buck to walk through in daylight, the gut call is picking the one based on all known information we think gives us the highest odds for any particular day. What we cant account for are things like new hunter pressure, bears or coyotes interupting travel, a doe comes in that he locks down with, etc. It's playing 3d chess with a third party joining in that can just randomly change one or more of the pieces without notice.
Or we can just go sit a food source or a random pinch point, etc. and wait. That works too, sometimes. It's not about right or wrong. At the end of the day it is about what brings you the most enjoyment for your time in the woods. If killing a mature buck or a specific buck isnt a priority, getting into the weeds of the details wont be as important to having enjoyable hunts. If it is though, the details matter. The more of them we can learn and understand, the more we can improve our odds of being in the right place at the right time.