Indeed! I learned this the hard way (and am still learning... as a newbie I am still struggling with many things). A lot of my time was spent going almost robotically through the text-book explanation of how to perform an operation with the hand plane. Plane across grain the entire board until every stroke give you a full shaving ... check... plane diagonally the entire board until you get full shavings ...check... plane along the grain until you get full shavings... check. It took forever and my results were always unacceptable. Same issue with squaring an edge. Once I started taking ownership of what I was doing and thinking of the plane as a tool, not the brain, everything became more economical and precise, with matching results. As it is usual the case for many, I was in a power-tool mindset, in which you rip, joint, plane and rip again to get to four square; and let the machine do the work for you. With hand-tools, there is an infinite number of ways you can approach the issue, and the most efficient approaches are always based on a good read of the particular characteristics of the board you are trying to tame.
I don't fully regret the faults on my old ways, though. The pain and frustration caused by my wrong ways made for a lesson well learned. I think I am now better equipped to attack any task with a more critical and hopefully smarter approach that still builds on fundamental and sound technique.