I guess in between, after reading more of this. I don't use Poker Tracker and definitely don't think its a neccessity. Most of the great players in the game learned the game in live games and they certainly didn't have Poker Tracker to analyze their "leaks", but rather they learned by experience, but that's not to say that it can't help some people, particularly while playing limit.

Even still, I consider myself an analytical player because I consider odds and position and stack sizes etc., talk about plays and hands here, read poker articles and books, etc. Instinctual, when I first read the topic, sounded more like "I got a good feeling about my hand so I'll make a play that my mind knows is a bad one", and I never do that consciously(although I do at times have brainfarts that convince me to make a play that I should've known were bad - like calling an all in preflop with AJs). But it sounds more like you're talking about poker instinct based on reads and experience and all that, and using this on top of a solid foundation of a analytical game. I'm all for that.

I do think you need to have a good understanding of the analytical game to really play outside of the box effectively, though. I think some people kind of skip over that and play a game purely based on aggression, which will work at times (and lose a lot at other times), but I think its best for a beginning player to first develop a really good game while playing straight and tight before moving outside of the box, as you have to learn when to pick your spots.

So yeah ... somewhere in between.