Silver wrote about 'still water': "The fish has a long time to inspect the fly from very close up with essentially no energy expenditure for additional time spent."
Exactly! That's why this so-called 'micro drag' is a bunch of b.s. If on still water the fish has the time to perform a complete inspection of the insect(real or imitation), then the logic would be that on moving water the fish has, based on: the speed of the water, the current, the wind, and anything else that effects its vision and how fast the target is out of range, very little time and must react quickly if not immediately upon seeing the target. Therefore 'micro drag', which has been described as invisible, means nothing insofar as the fishes reaction. Not talking about a drag with a wake, although some flies fished like that have been proven 'killers'. Then again, it's as good as an excuse as many. And you're perfectly entitled to your opinion.