[ezra76]

I guess the reason I joke about "ball position" is it is just, not sure what term to use here, a small part of something much larger maybe.

The real thing to look at is the steepness/shallowness of the swing, face positon at impact... and I don't just mean open and shut, I mean lofted and/or delofted. Why do I play a fade to an elevated green? I can open the face more, increase loft and bring the shot in on a higher trajectory from further back in my stance and use backspin/sidespin to stop it. If I hit from a square stance, same ball position, it will tend to produce a lower straight or slight draw.
Same thing goes with taking spin off. I'll play a PW from about a 3W spot and let it run up from the front to the back of a sloped green. The "ball position" is just a byproduct of what is necessary to hit a PW that I am not fully compressing, catching just before the point I may catch it fat and trying not to put any backspin on it.

What is a "stinger"? I have my version of one that I hit with my 3i off the tee. To me it is a shot that is played slightly forward of normal postion, in my case to produce a slightly flatter plane as well, reach for it a little. The purpose is to hit a lower, very little spin shot that will hit the ground at 180-190 and run. Ball position is just a byproduct of the shot being attempted. Anyone who steps up and just says "I'm going to hit this one up the middle". Wow, it could just never be that simple and easy for me.