I'm surprised to hear it- the "genie method" as you call it- took me a second- worked for me frequently, especially in cold weather. Not infrequently, if mornings were cold and I'd equalized the presure then, the thing would just prime itself in the evening when I opened the valve. Maybe it's just variations in stoves.. mine probably dates from 1969 or so, the pre-"self cleaning" version. Or maybe I just have hot hands. :-)

I also have a blue-box Optimus that's basically the same stove with a larger tank and a different windscreen, and it is even easier to prime- but I seldom carried it.

I only used the eydropper bit when I was first learning how to use the stove. It was convenient on the Optimus version, but it was a real hassle on the Svea, where you pretty much had to remove the windscreen.

All credit to Colin Fletcher- his book started me backpacking way back when, and I'm sure he's the reason I bought the Svea in the first place (well, it was the lightest, at the time). I have all four editions here on the shelf.