I believe that most of your questions you are asking are legit questions but we as fisherman read a lot about how to fish for bass. Most of the authors of those articles or books are from other fishermen's experiences and/or beliefs.
I read a lot of those books and articles, but I take some of the info with a grain of salt. Like Raul indicates in his post, the match the hatch theory is what it is, a theory. Why would a bass hit a bubble gum colored soft plastic in shallow clear water. It doesn't exactly match the hatch, but a bass can see the color of bubblegum in shallow water pretty darn good and still hit it. Drop that bubbleum in deep water and you may go fishless or at least not get a lot of bites. bubble gum at deeper depths just doesn't exude much color, in fact it may just turn into a primary color or invisible the deeper it gets.
Wearing bright colors: Skeet Reese wears bright yellow, he seems to be doing alright...LOL. I was sight fishing during the spawn and pitched my jig to a bass that was 4' away in clear water. I was wearing a sky blue golf shirt standing up on a bank with the bass facing towards me. It took me about 15 mins of snapping the rod tip and barely moving that jig before that bass would hit it, so from that day on, I beleived that I got the bass because my presentation was the deciding factor in getting that bass and any other bass for that matter.
With all that said, I do try and tip the odds in my favor by going by the book when it comes to line diameter and color, baits and bait colors that I think will work as well as my appearance and movements on the bank. It may not make a lot of difference in the world, but some days you just never know.
JMHO
