Thanks for taking the time to share your experiences. I am surprised you take Alexa ranking to be that much of a factor. As you hinted at, it is inaccurate...in my opinion, extremely inaccurate. Not to mention there are way to manipulate it as well. Also, people do build lists using multiple websites, so checking the Alexa of their "main" domain might not such a fruitful exercise. Regardless the rest of your points make a ton of sense!