This I can not agree with, at least based on what I have seen at my firm.
I personally believe traders with a profit to commission ratio of 1 to 1 (what I did last year) is typically playing it safer than those going for 5 to 1 because you sacrifice a lot of commissions with churning which is part of the defense. It generally leans toward a more scalping oriented game, and in general, smaller up days and smaller down days. People who go for bigger moves (required for higher p/c ratio) need to have wider stops and tend to have bigger swings, and higher volatility in their account.
I have also noticed that a lower profit to commission ratio strategy tend to outperform trend traders in choppy markets. It is always easier to go for smaller moves than bigger ones, and if you talk about the ability to survive a tough market I have to put my money on people who go for quarter's than people who go for multiple points.
Keep in mind you said it yourself that you are for the most part an intraday trader with occassional overnights, hence you do not count as a true swing trader when it comes to stats.
If two traders of equivalent level with 100K a piece, I personally believe it is very difficult for the swing trader to beat the day trader, at equivalent experience/skill level, simply because the day trader tends to be more active and 100K is typically sufficient, not to mention the fact that a day trader can go harcore on margin without changing the risk equation too much if he is looking for quarter's and halve's.
Increase that stake to two million, and the day trader will be fighting an uphill battle, as it becomes very difficult for him to trade his entire account at once and with the gap moves that only swing trader's can benefit from, a good swing trader will truly shine by then.
This is also very similar to a typical day trader's learning curve, as I have observed many new traders at my firm. In the beginner level, the trader who goes for quarter's will lose a lot less than a trader who goes for point(s) before turning profitable.
A trader who rely on quality shots will lose a lot more simply because while both the quarter guy and the point guy will make a lot of mistakes, the quarter guy's mistakes are a lot less costly as they are probably 5-10 cents stops.
The quantity of the shots a scalper takes greatly speeds up the learning process and reduces risk. You learn more when you take more shots, which is why I have noticed that the success rate for quarter guy's is quite a bit higher than point guy's.
Once both become profitable however, which will usually take the point guy longer than the quarter guy, it gets really interesting. The point guy will have bigger up day's, on a good trending day the quarter guy has very little hope to beat the point guy, but on a tough day the quarter guy usually wins.
In late game, the point guy will wipe the floor with the quarter guy, as by then both will probably shoot a high percentage, and you will be hard pressed to catch someone with quarter scalps when he takes say just one big move out of the market a day with a big position. The point guy will have a longer holding period and will be able to swing more size given the same liquidity.
So in my view, as beginners, a trader that goes for quarters destroys a trader that goes for point(s), at intermediate level it is a wash, at advanced level a trade that goes for point(s) will smack down the quarter guy.
However, the survivability of a trader that goes for quarters (even in toughest market conditions those are easy to find) balances things out. And I stays with my opinion that a new trader should try to get quarter's before they try to pull point's.
In the end it is what you put in your own pocket that matters, I make 74K a year I don't care if it took an extra 76K in commissions to do it. It doesn't mean I don't need to improve my efficiency, but for me there is absolutely nothing wrong with paying commissions. Some of the most successful traders at my firm averages somewhere between 5-10 cents per share traded. Yes, they are the poster childs of the firm as every firm love big size scalpers, but if you talk about consistency and minimizing risk there is just no better strategy than a top scalper, even if in the end it may be the least profitable strategy of them all at equivalent size/skill.
As for sitting out 1/4 of the year, that's an luxury that those of us in first year or two of our careers don't have.
May the force be with you.