Pete,
Up until Kevin VanDam came along and began his total domination of professional bass fishing here in the US, Rick Clunn was considered to be the best, or one of the best, bass fishermen alive.
He still competes on the pro circut, but Kevin is just in another league than anyone else fishing today.
Clunn has been described as a Zen fisherman, camping at tournament sites to be more in touch with the environment at the tourney, and he helped develop the Lucky Craft crankbait series that bear his name. The RC in RC 1.5 stands for Rick Clunn.
I fish with a guy who was the original big tube (Tora Tube) fisherman. He actually took a salt water tube, and adapted it to bass fishing. He still throws the original Gizit tubes, and still gets bit, so there's probably a lot of truth is what you said. We all probably get caught up in the latest and greatest, the new bait, the new technique, and forget what worked for us in the past.
I know Texas rigged and split shot worms still catch fish here, and those techniques have been around forever. I always have either a Texas rig or a split shot tied on whenever I go fishing.