Wow. I'm sorry you feel that way. I'll try to address each point you bring up in turn and hopefully I won't miss anything.
1. High ground not keeping the tent dry
In my first post, I thought that I made it clear that the tent was not wet from the rain. It was muggy, I was sweating, ergo everything I touched got wet. The high ground wasn't a factor in this case, however it has been a factor in the past. Wicking action is minimal at best. That's why after a light rain, you can move a car and it's still dry underneath. Assuming however you are caught in torrential hurricane force weather. There are things you can do. Bank dirt around the site. It doesn't have to be the great wall of China, just a few inches is all it takes. This will slow the flow of water. Also if you keep the area heated, the water evaporates quite readily. Contrary to your implication, water doesn't pour through dirt like it isn't there. Capilary action does take time. Whatever the combination of factors at play, I haven't had a flooded shelter yet.
2.The knot count.
As I have stated before, I basically start with a square frame. When I was very young, I learned what a square was. It is a polygonal shape with four equalateral sides. Now on this point I must be a bit vague as I don't claim that my squares are exactly "square". But I do know they have exactly four corners to them. These have to be tied. These are the only things that have to be tied as I am about to explain. You see, there is a force in nature called gravity. I try to use this force whenever possible to make tasks easier. This is how it works. I take four poles, lash them together at the ends. Takes about ten minutes to do all four. Now I have a frame. That was easy you may say, but now what? Well, now you get it in the tree. For this you will need a tree for each corner that you have tied. Sometimes it may be three, or two or five or whatever. You can use poles to make up the remainder of the missing trees if you like but I can usually find four trees that are roughly positioned correctly. At this point I would like to point out that I only hang one half of the frame in the trees until I get it "shingled". For the hanging process you may need something to stand on. I usually throw a line over a limb and drag it up hooking the frame over a limb. Now that we have half in the trees and half on the ground, we take some large boughs and limbs and whatnot and hang them on the frame using branches that should always be pointing down as hooks. As long as the branches are hanging all in one direction. Remember gravity? This is the time to start using it. Once the branches are in place, hoist the other end of the frame up into the trees and hook them on slightly lower branches than the previous ones. Now you are ready to go. If you haven't done it properly it will leak. If this is a problem just throw more branches up there making sure that they are facing the same direction. You can do this all day if you like but I've found that it doesn't take that long. Now that I've told you how to get a shelter up with only four knots, I will tell you how to put walls on it. Simply lay poles against it on the sides. Remember the gravity thing? Do the same thing as you did to the top except for hanging the other end in a tree. That will just make more roof. It's not pretty but it does work. Oh, and you don't have to use pine either. It's just handy around here. I have also used oak, mimosa, and others as well. Mimosa incidentally doesn't last very long but the poles are usually quite straight.
3.Using pine boughs
This actually works believe it or not. The funny thing is, it works for exactly the same reason you claim keeps the ground wet in a shelter. Capilary action. Now here's a simple test that can show you how this works. Take an ordinary piece of string and hold it under a small stream of water. Hold it horizontally but tip it slowly to the vertical plane. You will see as to tilt the string that the water will tend to follow it. It's the same with pine needles. they carry the water right off the side that's the lowest. As for the density of the needles, you obviously aren't familliar with pine. They are very dense. and even if you somehow come to a forest filled with pines that look like Charlie Brown's Christmas tree, then you just use more of them. So far it hasn't been an issue for me.
4. Your prowess.
If you have built several scores of lean-to's and still can't get it right, color me unimpressed. Personally, if I can't get it to work within two or three tries, I move on to something else. I don't keep doing it. You know, the whole doing the same thing expecting different results concept.
5.Staying warm and dry.
I have no problem there. I live in a climate that is quite pleasant so barring a major climate shift, I don't have to build snow huts or igloos. I know how, I just don't have to. About the coldest we get down here is maybe in the teens and I camp in that with no problem. Oh and we don't lose snowmobiles in lakes here either. Our lakes are liquid and we can remember where we left them. Someone mentioned that to me awhile back although I don't remember who.
6.Leaving no trace.
I'm not quite sure I know why this is important. I must confess that I've used fire pits for quite some time and never destroyed not one single forest. In fact they are all still there. I do know that I have gone back to a place that I've camped at a few months later, and there was a nice fresh coat of leaves over everything. I couldn't see the fire pit anymore, but I knew it was there. How exactly does leaving no trace help? As far as I can tell, leaving no footprints only satisfies the aesthetic principles of the person that camped there. No one has ever complained about my fire pits except the few people on here who have never seen my fire pits. I'm not sure how a fire pit does so much damage long after I'm gone, but I'm sure there are statistics. If you have them handy I would love to read them over sometime. I love statistics. Oh and as for my shelters, if I'm not coming back, it's the last thing on the fire. If I am coming back, I don't care who sees it. They shouldn't be there anyway, it's private land.
So I hope I addressed all your concerns. If not, I am sure I will hear about it. I would think being the outdoorsman that you are, msot of this stuff would be insanely simple to you. Guess it's a little different where you come from.