JAY JG said:
But there are many editors (admittedly usually newer ones) who are not committed to these principles, and with them Talk: is often useless. And you'll tend to find those kinds of editors on hot-topic pages.
I've run into people like that, I'm sure we all have. But I really don't understand why you would claim that using talk with newcomers and mavericks is useless. Newcomers need to be handled gently and with understanding, as your aware. Mavericks can only really be dealt with via dispute resolution, which requires us to assume good faith and try to use persuasion in the first instance. Give a troll a chance and he'll hang himself. A maverick with clue can be an asset, up to a point. Either way we don't want to let them drag us into pointless edit wars.