Different trends have different strengths. "Higher highs and higher lows" tells you nothing about strength. Chose the wrong trend to trade with and you can lose a great opportunity. Whatever else you think about indicators, they give the trader numbers to work with and the best indicators give wonderfully useful numbers to work with. Of course most traders never see the best indicators so there is little appreciation for this. Traders who want the greatest success have to figure this stuff out for themselves.
HHs and HLs may not tell you anything about strength per se, but they tell you that price is rising. The stairstep gives you the strength, i.e., price doesn't drop back into the previous swing. As for the "wrong" trend, the right trend is the one that's going in your direction. Why trade any other? Keep it simple.
You have two stocks to choose from. Both are rising. Which one do you buy? Answer: use trend strength. The days of riding a single great stock to financial independence are over. Nowadays traders have to make difficult decisions between a multitude of choices, and they often have to switch horses midstream if they want to stay on top of the competition. Nothing does that better than using a great strength indicator that is constantly updating itself at every timestep for any number of securities of interest. A relatively simple spreadsheet exercise, given the right inputs.
You might. As might others. I'd be more interested in what stage it's in. Actually they elect to decide amongst a multitude of choices. If they were to choose otherwise, they might be choosing amongst a select group rather than a multitude. As for switching horses, that's up to the market to decide, not the trader. Traders elect to make things difficult. If they were to elect to keep things simple, they might be surprised at the results. The best trend indicator is most likely a five-year-old child, if you happen to have one lying around, or know somebody who has one.
Close beyond last pivot changes trend for half my entry signals, many times if not a good trend change allows one to get out where they got in depending on where they got in of course.
It is difficult to discuss with people who don't know what you are speaking about. Most traders don't understand what you mean. It is best to keep it that way. Why create competition for yourself? I know what you mean and I agree with your statements. The fact that most traders don't understand what you mean is the explanation why they don't believe performance of people who make consistently money. They don't believe because they miss the most essential and substantial part of trading, they don't even know about the existance of it.
I use money management. The objective is to offset losses and get into black on days that your system works best. Nobody knows beforehand if it's gonna be a range or a trend day. Small losses, bigger wins.