Yes. With the time I had in the previous build, it didn't make sense to do much VO2max work as I felt the marathon-specific work would give me the most bang for my buck. Moving forward, I think my progress will stall if I continued to ignore 5k-pace work.
Allen's post is really interesting. My takeaway is that MP and 5k pace should compress as you become more marathon fit. Even if it's uncomfortable, you've prepared your body to handle it. I'm guessing that 15-years ago Allen was not as marathon fit as 2018/2019 Allen.
A corollary is that at some point we all run into diminishing returns if we ignore fast pace work. As MP and 5k pace compress, we'll get to a point where progress flat lines. We need a faster stimulus to drag MP further down.
Lydiard tackled this by placing a sharpening phase at the end of the marathon cycle. Daniels places it before the marathon-specific work, or for already well-trained athletes, spreads it throughout the cycle. Every other system I'm familiar with does some form of fast pace work.