I'm paraphrasing now from a bronze medalist in ITF TaeKwonDo about his experience competing for 5 years in Muay Thai, and how TaeKwondo translates: Bare in mind that this is the more conservative style of TKD compared to the WTF guys....
He trains with me.
Him -
TKD high kicks don't work
Me- So drop the high ones and go for midsection. Why not sidekick their exposed abdominal area due to high guard ?
Him - They don't care if I connect or not. This is full contact Thaiboxing. Sidekicks ain't doing any damage to their well conditioned bodies. And they pick up on it fast.
Conversation died after that. I ran out of ideas
So Axiom, what makes you listen to that one guy over all the people you are arguing with?
Could it be that his view matches your own so seems more valid?
I've not long ago started training Muay Thai and one of my main background arts is wtf taekwondo.
I don't know why your friend thinks the high kicks don't work?
I can only guess it's because he has no power in them because he's trained those flicky machine gun kicks that ITF folk like to use in demo...
...But that is just a guess about a kicking style I've never done so not worth much.
Side kicks and spinning back kicks have been my saving grace against the guys at my club. And while he's correct that ultra conditioned fighters are harder to put down with a mid section side kick, to say they don't care is a massive over-statement.
As I commented a while back in another thread the difficulty I found was that it's much harder to get them to extend with a power technique or with a lunge despite the thai fighter constantly creeping towards you. This makes every engagement a messy clash rather than the high stakes game of distance manipulation that wtf sparring is.
I realise you are going to ignore this post as you've ignored everyone who disagreed with you, but for what it's worth the following is what I believe.
All fighters win or loose based on how they have trained.
You commented once at not being a fast kicker. That is a flaw in your training. Change how you train and you will get faster.
No TKD man is worth a damn if his kicks can't KO with one shot and if they are so slow they get caught often.
Training is everything but training is not the same as the fighting style (in most cases). How one fights is the "fighting style", the clue is in the words.
For Tkd specifically aside from speed and power the ability to feint and vary the angle of attack and always return your foot to the floor so you can move are IMO key points in fighting other styles that use more hands.
Understand how to use direct energy kicks vs circular kicks.
Kicks should snap from the chamber and penetrate like a bullet. The sight of the chamber should fill the opponent with dread for the bewildering array of possible ***-whopery that it represents.
Switching feet should look like a kick, stepping should look like a kick, spinning should look like a kick and a kick should look like a blinding light of pain.
I could do all that once and I was never "good" at Tkd as classed by tkd folks. I could do that to non tkd people because everybody thinks they can kick so they know what tkd can bring. But unless they've trained in it, they don't know jack.