Personal preference is right.
I do not find track nails and ME spike to be fiddly at all, rather they allow me to lay track with precision on the center-line that I draw carefully. The track is down
now, not later when the adhesive sets up. I can tweak it a tiny bit while siting down the rail if need to get smooth flowing track.
Also what I like about track nails/spike is if anything need revision, it's a simple matter to pull them out with needle nose pliers and relay. No set-up adhesive to deal with. I"ve saved turnouts from 3 past layouts and they were in pristine condition when I sold them since there was not glue or adhesives on them. I didn't get far enough along to ballast the track on those layouts and am heck, glad I didn't use adhesives as it gave me the option to sell or reuse nice and clean.
Michael. I've been reading about gluing track down with adhesives such as caulk for the past 15-20 years on forums. It seems to be all the rage so I am not sure how you couldn't be aware of it! Many think it's the best thing since sliced bread and copy what others are doing like lemmings. Different strokes.
I'd guess the shift away began when foam became widespread and available enough for hobbyists to start trying out. Being light weight, it has some advantages if you want a portable modular layout that needs to be moved a lot.
I'm old school like you and don't see what all the fuss is about. I don't want to wait for adhesives to set. It has to be held in place while setting and what if it slips one way or the other while setting - you could remove the weights to find the track is crooked and wonky, but now it's fixed in place. Adhesives can obscure the center line that is my reference for precise track laying and once the adhesive is set the track is fixed in place and can't be adjusted without peeling it back up. I'd worry about damaging fragile turnouts freeing them from the adhesive and they ain't cheap.
I've never been a big fan of adhesives all my life, let alone for track laying and see them as a necessary evil. You ether get too little or too much, it gets where you you don't want it and have to wipe it up, on your fingers and cloths. Some take to long to set, others too fast. Bleh. I do use adhesives of course, but only for what I must and have no alternative.
People use foam for terrain and landscaping as well. There are two ways of course to make terrain. One is to build something in the shape of the terrain - an additive approach, such as cardboard strips and hot glue, or wire mesh with plaster over it. The other is subtractive method, where you put down layers of foam and carve away what isn't the hill or terrain and then put something over it to hide the foam. To me the subractive method seems like more expense and waste because you but all this foam and end up carving away a quarter to a third of it and throw it in the trash! If you save cardboard boxes, the cardboard is basically free. You just take a box cutter and cut it into long strips and the only cost if for the hot glue to attach it to the benchwork or framing.
Here are some photos showing both the track going down on cork with nails and cardboard strips with hot glue to create canyon walls.
Then plaster gauz over the cardboard stips
In this case the cardboard strips werern't simply to build land forms on, they actually are the land forms!