i think it all matters for handicap a 12-20 handicaper will probably improve more by hitting more gir , but when you get down to the 5-0 short game is huge , and i know for me all year i can just add 39 on to the amount of putts i take and thats my score or with in 1 stroke everytime ! , so when i have 28 putts thats a 67 , but when i shit the bed with 33 thats a 72.
im a little better than scratch +0.9 and i hit 12 / 18 gir or 66% and my scrambling avg for the year is 55% so i make ether 2 or 3 bogies a round , if i could get my scrambling up to 65% and only make 2 bogies around i could probably get to a +2 with out any improvement on my full swing
so in the end i agree , improving scrambling = improving index ,always! but if i was a 20 handicapper i would try and learn to strike the ball first