This is one way to look at proverbs, but another way is the “Learning from your mistakes is good. Learning from the mistakes of others is wise.”
Proverbs are not “mechanical knowledge”, but “bundles of condenced experience”, gleamed by the mistakes of others. Of course - in the terms of the game - you can go against them and try for yourself why and when they are usually correct and why and when there are exceptions.
For example, there is a proverb that goes “from two, jump three. From three jump four”, from which the general X+1 jumping rule away from your strength comes from, but that is a suggestion, not a mechanical obligation. For example, where do you jump now?:
Depends on what is on the square marked side.
If just two choices seem very restrictive, let’s enlarge the wall and follow another joseki.
Where do you jump now?:
Who knows? It depends on the whole board and you might even tenuki instead of jump out.
Proverbs are just merely good ideas, they are rarely “mechanically learned concepts”, because the game generates too much complexity to allow for a total stifling of the imagination.
If you’d like more explanations like that, I’d suggest you this:
It is free to download and you do not need chapter 1 since you know the rules.
Speed through chapter 2 just to check the basic shapes which you already know (since you have the books from Janice Kim) and begin from chapter 3, which has an example game and goes through the thoughts and plans behind most moves.
Janice Kim’s books are far superior than this one, of course, but that might help you with the strategy issue you mentioned and give you an insight on the fact that even if we know the same proverbs, the implementations will vary wildly from game to game. Hope it helps. 
If you do not mind, and since you like the philosophical extentions of Go, you can see your house and your health as the main components of the proverbial goban of life itself. By letting those get neglected, it is like setting yourself into playing a handicap game. A bad environment and bad health are some of the handicap stones of life. If we can alleviate them, it is always a good move to be considered.
It is also a good thought in the significance of handicap stones. What do they mean?
That we are worse than the opponent or that they are better than us?
Those look and sound the same, but they are not.
Because in order to remove one handicap stone, with the former mentality you have to improve yourself, which is not only doable and actionable, but it is within your own power.
But with the latter mentality, you languish waiting for the opponent to lose some strength and eventually drop lower and come closer to your level.
Just a few Go related philosophical thoughts…
Maybe in particular cases it is just a miscalculation, but in many board games the character of the player tends to shine through on their playstyle or, at the very least, their mentality.
