Scouting

As in most other strategy games I have played, I see a lot of emphasis put on scouting in SoSE.  Whether it is countering some kind of spam ("you should have scouted and built the appropriate counter"), defeating siege frigates ("you should have scouted and known he was massing them") or whatever, I hear a lot about scouting.

Now, I love scouting in theory.  It's great, fine, and dandy.  But in practice, can it really be done in a competitive game against a good, pressuring player?  I say it cannot (the same with most other strategy games I have played).

Back in the good old days of Starcraft,  I didn't have the luxury or the time to build a scout and micro it to my opponent's base to find out whether he was prepping a zergling rush.  I would have been dead.  The only thing that ever worked for me (and I played against super-aggressive friends) was to get 3 gateways up as soon as possible (with enough probes to support them) and start pumping zealots out with all 3.  There was no time to think, scout, or plan.  There was only time for action, period.  If he came with his zerglings (and he usually did) I was prepared.  If he didn't, well, that's life, and at least I had an army.

I found the same thing to be true when I was playing SoSE.  Oh, sure, in some kind of leisurely newbie game where both players are kicking back and nonchalantly playing and building up, there's time for anything you want to do.  But I'm not talking about that kind of game, I'm talking about an aggressive, competitive game.  Somebody will say "well you can put the scouts on auto."  Sure, I agree, but that merely ends up revealing the locations of planets, along with what was at those planets when your scout was last there.  Now, that's valuable information, and I'm not complaining.  But it's not "scouting" as recommended by all these posts I see on a daily basis.  It's not scouting that will tell you your opponent is massing this or that, unless you just get lucky and your scout ship happens to dart in and out of his system while he has something massed there.  Or unless your scout not only passes through a system as he is passing through with his fleet, but you also happen to look at the zoomed out screen at the time this is happening.

Scouting as recommended in all these posts - scouting which would actually guarantee that you know what your opponent is up to - would actually require time and micromanagement to a degree that you simply can't afford (similar to the zergling rush I outlined above).  You'd have to take the scout off autopilot, find his base or bases, go in, sit and watch, run when he chases off your scout, dart back in when he isn't looking, etc.  Meanwhile, you are neglecting an awful lot.

I have played many strategy games competitively, and have even been ranked at or near the top with a few.  But I have never been able to employ scouting effectively, and neither have my friends who have also played competitively (and been quite good).  I even played a developer of one particular game I won't mention, and I beat him pretty badly (much to my surprise and his).  This developer did not scout me and did not counter what I had coming for him, even though plenty of posts for this game also recommended the same thing time and time again (I didn't scout him either - I assumed one of the worst scenarios I could and prepped for it).

Now, in turn-based strategy, or some other slower type game, scouting would be totally doable and practical, and even critical.  But is it really viable in this game and others, no matter how much hot air you hear about it?  I don't want to hear from the players who play slow, leisurely games - we all know the answer to that (sure, you can scout).  I want to hear from the players who play fairly competitive, high-pressure games.  Am I right or wrong?