Very nice answer, I must admit 
When you make a statement usually you need to have some proof or evidence why it's as you said.
About small vs big pools the internet/forums is/are full of debates so ... it's your choice if you mine in a small or big pool
- On the long term it's the same, not a big diff (on big pools you get more small rewards, smaller pools are less frequent but larger rewards)
- It's important how they manage the pool
- Are they responsive when you need help
- Fees
- and other things ....
Also, I agree .... we need to spread the hashrate, and avoid concentrating in one pair of hands.

Regarding miner, in my opinion, Phoenix it's better than Claymore. For me the miner run very well and I have a better hashrate vs Claymore.
For 14x1070 I have 460-461 Mh on ETH with Phoenix vs Claymore with ~ 446 Mh so do the math ....

Regards,