When I started I basically thought specialists were useless. I think cottages are easier to understand, and they get bigger & better as time goes on, so better long term investment, right?
Thanks to some of the SE discussion and some SE games that were run, in understood why specialists were good, the power of Representation and when to run both. Playing some no-cottage games to test the extreme end of what would traditionally be called the Specialist Economy let me see how good specialists can be, but also their limitation (eg some sites are just better for cottages, and it can fade somewhat late game.... this then led to learning how building wealth can be really powerful). So for me, testing the extremes was a good learning experience.
I do understand your point that for some, CE/SE can be a trap and people end up going either/or. I think most of us in this thread are primarily using our own experience as the basis for our beliefs on this topic, which is only natural. I would say that if you start off saying to people "there are two main ways to get lots of commerce - cottages and specialists - and how many of each you use depends on many things" then that's a good way to teach.
Also, I think "hybrid ecenomy" is even more useless a phrase.