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I would probs have agreed with you 18-24 months ago. I did have a play when the rig first hit the headlines but ditched it pretty quickly after some dodgy hook holds. Last year I had another play with bigger hooks (2's and 4's) to suit a particular spot I found and I'm now sold. Imo, if it's set up well, the Ronnie is right up there with the hinge for mechanics and consistency in hook holds. A very, very good rig in the right situation. I don't use chods a lot, but they should always have a place in anyone's angling imo. There is nothing else as effective for when you see a fish show in an area you're not familiar with. Fact.

HSR was my go-to rig for 20 years but last year it was shelved for the ronnie/spinner with size 2's - that's how good I think the ronnie can be. There's no questioning how good the hinge is, it's a proven rig. I'd have no qualms at all using it again in the right situation, caught me loads of big fish that rig has. Bait screws are great but you need to make sure your pop ups are very good i.e. buoyant. Most off-the-shelf pop ups are no good imho.

Linch Hill? They have a cafe and awesome stock of kippers. Unfortunately big fish waters don't tend to do loads of bites unless you go to an overstocked commercial mate.

Spot on. Imo any method, when mastered and done well, is deadly. Nowt more dangerous than an angler that's confident in what they're doing.

Chods and stiff ds are personally all I use now. Mainy because there so simple to tie and it take very few componets to do it . But once I've used the last so my live system I'm gonna just use tigers hemp and maize ( need to save up and get my sorted now really) so I think 99% of my fishing will just be helicopters with balanced tigers on stiff ds but we have different ways so approaching stuff and though patterns

Personally I think ronnie is a bit of a sheep rig everyone using it as it's the videos and in articles

You mention the dreaded poisson chat, are there crays as well? Drilled Soaked wooden balls in glug. Hard hookers, I make up a 1egg mix of my normal base mix with around 10% of extra egg albumen, and 50ml of glycerol. The flavours are usually what is required to a standard 6 egg mix. Boil, and then air dry, give a roll in glycerine, then dry again until rock hard. You can each time you roll in glycerine add a few drops of flavour. It may still be worth meshing your hookbaits though. My 1 egg mix makes me enough (pop-ups) for a years fishing, so will give you plenty for a French trip.