What you say is correct, but please also recognize the value of being able to cancel without penalty. I would reiterate again comments from my post above that there is significant value in being able to cancel a reservation, not just in the securing the original reservation. I just returned from a vacation that could never have happened with owner rentals and it was tremendous one on one time with my son.
There are far too many variables to reduce this down to a one-structure-fits-all solution. For me, my work heavily impacts when I can travel, and I may not know until very close to the travel dates what is possible. So, I currently am holding two reservations at Ritz Carlton St. Thomas (Thanksgiving 2017 and February 2018), one at HHV (across Veteran's Day in 2017), one at Ko Olina (across President's Day 2018) and one at Elysian Beach Resort (March 2018).
I will maybe use one or two of them and will cancel the others -- but I have no idea what work will be like across all those dates so I will make the reservations and then cancel them (or rent them) as desired. The only one that is modestly problematic is the Ko Olina, because it's an II trade. But I'll cancel that if I have too.
For summer 2017, I've got lots of contiguous reservations in Hawaii (WPORV, MOC, Ko Olina, Grand Waikikian) -- I just shortened the WPORV reservation from 12 days to 7 days because it's clear now I can't take the full trip, and Grand Waikikian will likely also be canceled.
But, this structure -- true flexibility -- would not be possible without owning the different timeshares. Plus, it's fun for a quantitative person like me!!
Best,
Greg