I hate to say it, but it depends on the player. Don’t worry, I’ll elaborate. It depends on two things; time the player can put in and touch/feel/coordination. There are golfers out there that have a lot of time to practice, great facilities to practice at and the touch to see a distance and hit the ball there with “feel” alone. That’s great! Those players can keep going and get better. Sometimes all they need is a yardage measuring device and a good, solid range session to groove the distance and then they are good. These players don’t go too long between practice sessions, so they don’t lose that “feel”. Then there are the rest of us.
In 15 years of teaching and 25,000 lessons, I find most golfers don’t fall into that category. Most golfers play on the weekends, maybe, and practice once in a blue moon. Also, most golfers have not cultivated that touch/feel/coordination that the above golfer has built. These golfers would absolutely benefit from a system of rules to dial in wedge distance. Having some preset swing lengths that these players can recall will get them closer than just blind guessing with feel. Sure, even stopping your swing in the right place takes some feel and touch, but when you have a goal in mind, you will get close.
To this day, I still start with my swing length system when I have a long layoff. Living in Colorado, means I will always have random, long layoffs from the course. I can’t go out there after a month-long layoff and have the same touch/feel I had at the end of the summer last year. I will start with my system and then touch will take over as I practice more.