Nick like you say washed out baits may only work in certain circumstance. Trying to pinpoint when and where would drive a person insane. I think to often we link a change in bait or rig to a capture and draw the wrong conclusions. For people who can spend the time testing/fishing a water over a prolonged period they may find they can. Only for the theory to blow later.
I still think the biggest change anyone can makr is location. Most good anglers I hear will say location is 90% of catching the fish. So any improvement in location is worth more than a tweak to a bait or rig.
If you have a bait you know fish eat and a rig that presents ok and you know how to adapt it to what's on the bottom then the biggest single change most can make is where they are fishing.