It's hard to judge what effect these things have. It's impossible to know what would have happened it you didn't hit that button, and they are only small additional bonuses - so they may not even make any difference to the game anyway.

As far as tactics are concerned, again it's difficult to see whether you made a change that helped, because without scientific conditions you'll never know what would have happened if you didn't. I have made changes in game, and won, but who knows if I was set to win anyway!?