What Makes Erdnase So Great?

I often hear people whine and moan about the difficulty of reading Erdnase or the inferiority of the techniques. Of course this is quite simply bull shit but nonetheless I will address it. I will attempt to not repeat the words of Mr. Diaconis in his wonderful Introduction to Revelations. In defining what makes Erdnase so great one needs to consider 2 key things. They context in which the book was written, and who wrote the book. Today our magic texts are authored by a handful of people for the most part, Kaufman et al. The problem lies in the inability of the authors to perform EVERYTHING (I use that term with careful specificity) they write. Erdnase on the other hand wrote the book and practiced the techniques, claiming originality for some of the work. With that in mind, could you imagine a text written by the master with attention to detail so careful that every slight pressure and friction is recorded? Look at older books and even books today and the descriptions leave much to be desired, but Erdnase, not so much. Being the writer it should come as no surprise to think that Erdnase already explored our feeble attempts at improvement. He likely stumbled across the same thoughts. So many improvements seem so obvious, modified Erdnase Grip for example, that is making the assumption that Erdnase wasn't intelligent enough to try it with those two fingers together? Let be realistic.
The context in which the book was written is apparently financial desperation coupled with the attention to detail required of a card cheat. The combination is dangerous, every detail is handled with care and it is written by a man who can't afford for it not to be a success, at least that is the impression I get. Therefore every slight moment is meticulously recorded and analyzed to ensure the reader understands and can learn the technique.
With regards to the context, consider that Erdnase was the innovator of many of the techniques in the book. This would mean he experimented until he ended at those conclusions. But also that he wrote the book, analyzing the movements so diligently that new information, evolution or understanding would be acquired. Now we have to assume Erdnase was capable of performing all these techniques nearly flawlessly, perhaps to perfection. With that in mind certainly his understanding of the move and personal evolution must have been long and impressive. So with that in mind; consider all the apparent improvements people are making, they are misinformed changes and one must consider that such simply improvements were considered by the author. Which is why he arrived at such specific techniques with such careful timing and thought. Especially with regards to the use of the left and right hand. I recall off hand the bottom deal description in which he mentions the left hand doing nine tenths of the work. A very important consideration. Yet today we see that people rely heavily on the strike technique. Likely something Erdnase had experience with in some form. The book is clearly written with emphasis on the Bottom Deal, but that is for another day.
That is a very condensed version of why Erdnase is so great! Those who don't think so, haven't read and clearly don't understand the book. Sorry to say...