Turns out when you grease the crank threads, the grease can creep into the pedal bearing housing" - that exact thing happened to a buddy of mine. He kept wondering why his pedals felt gritty after a season and finally pulled one apart to find a greasy mess inside the bearings. Swears by the spindle method now and will lecture anyone who listens.

Too reliant on shortcuts" - that one hits hard, man.

Same. My grandma always said to spritz warm water over crumbly dough with a spray bottle and work it in. Tried it once on a batch of sugar cookies that were basically sand and it fixed them right up. Still annoying that she was right all along.