"I use long ISRs and I know others too, in conjunction with timers."

Me too. Frequently.

"It is very straightforward to compute the duty cycle needed with timers and the interrupts associated with them. I can use this information to design timing schemes that are predictable and reliable."

Absolutely.

I'm sure we've had this discussion before but I can't locate the thread.

Erik's argument seems in general to be that beginners should stick with some sort of subset of programming until they become experts. I totally disagree with this - I think beginners should make every effort to figure out the best solution to the problem they have on hand. If this involves a bit of study to understand the implications of what they're doing then all the better, they'll become experts sooner.