Third, leaving defenders back hurts you on offense. Sending cherry pickers forward hurts you on defense.

This isn't true. Why don't you leave a cherry picker behind on basketball? Because defending 5 guys with only 4 defenders, you would get scored on every single trip down the floor.

In soccer you don't usually put 11 players behind the ball (unless you are Santa Clara). You are usually only defending with 6-8. You wouldn't miss that lone striker who was hanging out at the other end of the field.