I know that you have taken a few undeserved and unfair punches at different foras. At times I feel that you do have a tendency to express your feelings quite strongly and paint pictures in black and white with rather few nuances of grey. This probably stems from your strong passion about these matters, but that can be a bit provocative. However, provocation can be met and handled in many ways without resorting to personal attacks. We are only discussing here.
Oh, and I am probably exhaggerating different arguments occassionally. Discussions tend to drift a bit when it gets heated.

It is a "can of worms" and I have said more than enough on the topic, but I have to make a few final notes.
In reality I think we may be not as far from each other as it may seem. I am most certainly NOT advocating inventing new techniques, which you seem to believe. I just think that some of the techniques that we are learnt can and quite likely have been used out of the context shown in the various fechtbuchen.
I also think that you constantly need to adapt your techniques to the situation at hand and that it may create some grey areas, like defining when a low angle zornhau instead becomes a mittelhau. The term does not matter as much as hitting the head from the side and high using the long edge, while keeping safe. For demonstration purposes it matters, I agree, but not for sparring.
Also, some techniques may be possible to perform in other situations that are not shown, like a specific type of attack or defense from a primary or seconday guard that is not actually mentioned in the fechtbuchen. Shit happens and you need to adapt and use what you know to make it go away.
So, if you only make demonstrations, then fine, I agree with you. However, if you want to spar, then I think another approach is more valid if you want to get closer to what historical combat looked like.
Also, I think you are attaching a bit of a "fact"-status to what in actuality are interpretations and extrapolations, like with your previous reasoning on footwork. You may be right, but the absence of material is not proof in itself, although you certainly can extrapolate logical conclusions based on that. The same thing goes for comparing different masters and Talhoffer to Jeu de la Hache. I think it is valid, but it IS frog dna. And leaving gaps in the combat dna is not the same as a complete art as it was done historically. How much frog dna and how large gaps in the code your path entails I really can't judge. I am sure that you are fine fighters. But I still maintain that both your and my perspective creates "new" arts with different, but no less values with regards to historical claims.
As for the fabrics comparison I think it is completely unfair, but it might stem from your thinking that I am advocating inventing new techniques, which I again am not. I am simply claiming that people fought using what they had learnt and adapted to the situation and context and that we should do the same.
Finally, the "knightly" spear. Of course it was a very, if not THE most common weapon for most warriors in history, including the vikings, the samurai and the knights. However, it was the most common weapon, period, and as such perhaps not as honourable a weapons as a, for instance, longsword. The spear was a cheap and very effective weapon for everyone and fairly simple to learn. These might be parts of the reason why we see so little of the spear in the fechtbuchen.
The reference to the Norse was just a pondering about the symbolical initiations of combat and I do find it interesting that it is used in similar ways, in two different contexts. The spear is, as I am sure you know, a symbol of Odin and he actually initiates the war between the Asa and the Vanir gods by throwing a spear over the Vanirs' heads, just as warriors do in many of the icelandic tales. The time frame and the geograpical spread isn't that far apart. But, it is just fun to ponder things such as these.
I think I will leave this topic for now, unless you come up with something completely outrageus that upsets me...

Take care!