I was out of town when Weldon post his article and am just now reading it. I enjoyed the article and really liked your post.
When I was younger, I used to obsess over what the "right" workout was for a specific day. Now I'd say the actual workout is kind of like cooking chicken. You can grill hit, you can bake it, you can cook it in the pan with the lid on it. In the end, if you do it right, you're going to pretty much get the same result. Now some may be slightly better, particularly for a given set up (think person) but for the most part the end result isn't all that much different. However, if you burn it and cook it too much, it's a disaster. Same thing if you don't cook it at all.
My one complaint is there was little talk about progressing. Start modestly in 9th grade, do a little more in 10th, more in 11th, etc. I don't think I lost to Weldon all year in 9th grade but then I got hurt in 10th grade because I didn't run in the summer and then tried to do what the seniors were doing.
When I was coaching at Cornell, I printed up a two sided business card and gave it to the guys. It has the keys to running on it. One short term. One long term. Here are those two sides.
https://www.letsrun.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/BEE3B7EC-27BF-4263-8897-5E1E690C32A0.jpeghttps://www.letsrun.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/C24B5E81-3E76-4631-8373-06B8705CD3AF.jpeg