The value of OR talks depends entirely on your current sitch. There are no two alike, and even within the context of a given sit, things change.
My first (pre-DB) attempts at OR talks were futile. Destructive, in fact. They were tantamount to begging/pleading, and we all know where that gets you.
Round 2 was an attempt by me to find out where my DBing had got me. That was the killer because for all appearances, I was no further ahead.
But while painful, it was not destructive. Like IMP, it hurt, but it was informative.
From there, they got less and less painful as W's reactions got less and less knee-jerk-kick-him-in-the-stomach.
Now, the're not only almost painless, but ironically, not as necessary.
