MR, It's not about paying homage for me, it is about what learning technique inculcates into you as a developing creative artist. The polemics mean nothing to one who has the wits to assimilate the essence of technique and adapt it to their own proclivities. But getting to that stage is only achieved by learning in the first place. Those who have a voice will find themselves regardless as it is a natural bent. Keeping it simple in order for one to find their way at first is highly recommended, rather than giving them all 12 tones to dick around in without knowing how to make a statement cohere, write an extended phrase, develop motifs, score a passage effectively, acquire a sense of musicianship from which to spring forth, or achieve a sense of inevitability in the work. Giving an inexperienced composer an open atonal field to play in will inevitably result in unsatisfying, wandering, uncertain nonsense with no sense of purpose unless the composer knows themselves and how to achieve their ideas or has a wonderful talent. Remember too that Schoenberg's innovation was long considered by him and not decided upon lightly, he was after all a composer with a considerable (traditional) technical arsenal.
The polemics you are engaging in don't actually mean much to a mature composer on a day to day basis as far as I'm concerned. What really matters is finding and presenting the idea and the more you know, the more options you have to support your fantasy. There are clearly many ways to learning composition (all valid imv by the way), but some come with more of a guarantee of good execution and lucid expression than others.
We will therefore have to disagree on the point about training and I for one don't care at all for distinctions being made about a diatonic or chromatic paradigm, having left those concerns behind years ago. I'm not saying they are not without significance and I am enjoying the thread and the theoretical prowess on display is wondeful. It's just that on a day to day basis, they are of no concern and the distinctions do not impact practically nor aesthetically on a young mind that needs to learn imv, that mind will transcend any diatonic 'hedging in' if it is able to.
I would like to ask you if you are a composer and if so, what are your credentials and what music do you write? (any links?, I'd love to hear some as you do make many valid points). This would give me a better understanding of you and help keep any antagonism in check. You can see my signature below if you want to know about me....if you want atonality, check out the preludes and fugues or the clarinet concerto, for expanded tonality, the violin sonata, or for more obvious diatonicism, the Partita Concordia. (page 3 on the site has scrolling scores).
I also have to say that this would've been a more pleasant conversation for me if you would have at least acknowledged your misunderstanding seeing that I was at pains to correct it, but never mind, this is the internet after all eh?