Well, orthodox castling is too cumbersome. After so many moves have taken place the game is probably deep into the middle game so there is not much safety to obtain anymore.
On the other hand regular fast castling poses almost no challenge as you have to move only one piece from the king's path to the edge.
You, HG, have found a case where fast castling is ok because you granted some special blocking power of some pieces towards the otherwise unblockable pieces. That works in those games. But what about 12x12 or 14x14 games that don't have leaping generals? Fast castling is a way to cheap move. I think the player should need to put some work into castling because the gain (king safety) is pretty high. That even if regularly fast castling very soon into the game might not be a good idea because "it shows the hand" of that player.
Well, orthodox castling is too cumbersome. After so many moves have taken place the game is probably deep into the middle game so there is not much safety to obtain anymore. On the other hand regular fast castling poses almost no challenge as you have to move only one piece from the king's path to the edge. You, HG, have found a case where fast castling is ok because you granted some special blocking power of some pieces towards the otherwise unblockable pieces. That works in those games. But what about 12x12 or 14x14 games that don't have leaping generals? Fast castling is a way to cheap move. I think the player should need to put some work into castling because the gain (king safety) is pretty high. That even if regularly fast castling very soon into the game might not be a good idea because "it shows the hand" of that player.