SAM's lucky charms are only a slight deviation from the standard maintenance combo approach. I think that the main nuance of the system comes from identifying and understanding the timing around certain positional sequences in relation to specific mechanics (which you're right, does require a degree of anticipation and fight knowledge). If you take that away (which you would, if the system were implemented on a tank), it would feel just like a set of maintenance combos on a 1:1:1 ratio that you occasionally truncate early.