About 700 years ago, Meister Eckhart wrote something like (poor paraphrase) "The blessings of God are made manifest in this: not in what we do, but in our awareness and openess to the leadings of God's Spirit." For years I've tended to believe that, while architectural understanding might improve my play, it actually won't because I'm not a good enough golfer to consistently hit the shots that my understanding suggests. But recently (and John's post reminded me of this), I've started to think that the real benefits of such understanding would come, and do in fact come, from a new attitude that such study engenders -- an attitude of openness to an fuller engagement/ interaction with the architect's intent. And that openness alone, that awareness, will pay dividends, perhaps not in ways that we can immediately recognize or even "keep score/track of" but that are true nonetheless, and increasingly so. But of course, believing this takes a little faith, the evidence of things unseen.
Peter