RJ - good and interesting post. For me, and along with how lovely they look to my eye, one of the advantages of now playing old persimmon and blades is that it changes my thinking and helps me focus on making the lowest possible score, hole by hole. So far it's been working, i.e. I'm actually shooting lower scores (and I sure hope that keeps up, because I sold my modern set of clubs and the old ones are all I have left.) That's partly because, unlike many many/most who choose to play with persimmon and old blades, I'm not all that good a golfer and I didn't take up the game as a kid but in my mid 30s; and so, I get a lot of satisfaction from simply making good solid contact -- which for me is the "juice" that others might get firing at a pin or trying to make the impossible shot. (The juice, I have to admit, is also that when I make this good contact, I'm making it with woods named "Ben Hogan" and irons named "Walter Hagen".) And I find that, when my focus is on good solid contact and not on distance or making the brilliant shot, I end up indeed getting that distance and indeed hitting more greens, or close to them. The "game" that Tom describes above suits me fine -- and while a little part of me thinks I'm now playing like an old man, another and bigger part says that I'm playing more like the way the game has been played for 150 years.
Peter
PS - and besides all of the above, if someone like Jim Sullivan puts his focus on shooting his lowest possible score every hole, that approach is good enough for me.