Aye!

So there's a dent in some wall or in your head from all that hammer-banging? Or is it a dent in some barrier that was put up for god-knows what reason?

Anyway, even though I am not working on a strategy, I feel the same at times. The good intuition that thus far served you well (evolution? survival of the fittest ideas?) now seems to have to be constantly backed up by metrics and quantities that either don't exist or are extremely difficult to measure. While it's probably not a good idea or very mature to soley rely on gut feeling borne out of a certain level of intelligence and experience, you also don't want to swing the other way and kill any creative talent with having to backup with metrics and stats every decision you feel necessary to make or direction you'd like to take things in.

Statistics are like women; mirrors of purest virtue and truth, or like whores to use as one pleases.