You honed your skills chasing 9X5RU? I don't know how you're just a few from #1 HR if you still need to practice pileup skills in what were very easy pileups. Just admit you'll work DX the way you want and leave it at that because you didn't acquire any skills in those pileups.
Honed, yes. Acquired, no. There is a difference.
Chasing split CW pileups (and CW DXing in general) requires practice. The same can be said for remembering how to configure RTTY and chase a split RTTY operation. DXpeditions are the only real options for this kind of thing so you're darned tootin' that when I have the time to play radio and there's a semi-rare one on I'll chase 'em up and down the band to fine-tune the needed muscle memory or whatever it's called. It's not for Greenie Hunting either, and I chased slots long before Clublog leaderboards existed.
If you (the generic you) choose to limit yourself to one Q per band and one per mode that's your own self-imposed limit. Same as if you choose to only use radios you build yourself, or only use QRP or only CW, or log on paper or whatever hurdles you want. Knock yourself out and have fun. When you're a handful back from #1 HR you have to be ready in case someone gets a one-day approval for a demonstration station in Pyongyang or a couple of guys get surprise permission to activate Pratas or San Felix.
I vividly remember when 7O6T was announced in 2012. I think there was a 5 day lead time before they went QRV, and at the time Yemen was either #2 or #3 most wanted, behind P5 and either ahead of or just behind Scarborough Reef. Anybody who's skills had atrophied in the weeks or months leading up to that operation may not have gotten them, or had a lot more trouble working them; those pileups were bloody
epic. And there's also the time factor. If your skills are up to date and your reflexes are honed it's easy to get it and out of a snarling, nasty dawgpile right quick fast and in a hurry.
But then there are the more mundane reasons: Is my rotor working correctly? Is my SWR still flat where it should be? Do I have my band/mode presets ready to roll, and do I remember how to quickly go split and not accidentally transmit over the DX? How efficient will I be when it comes time to find the CW QSX? Do I know how to properly set FT8 for F/H or determine if the DX is using MSHV? Is my clock accurate? All of these are simple tasks to be sure, but the more I repeat them the more they remain front-and-center in my mind and the less I have to fumble when the alarms go off. Firefighters drill in their downtime for the same reason. Can they still throw a ladder as fast as they were taught? Can they get water flowing in under 60 seconds? Same applies to this hobby or any other endeavour in life. Practice makes perfect, and the only way to practice DX pileups is to work other DX pileups.
I'm sick of the holier-than-thou types who believe
their techniques and methodologies are the only acceptable ones that all of us must follow to work DX—as if these were edicts handed down on stone tablets by Hiram Percy Maxim himself. Get over yourselves. You do you and I'll do me.
This is The Way.