And no, my offshore experience is quite limited...

In what you said, this is the key phrase to me: "and I meant that I could steer for long periods of time in good visibility without one, but that making sure you generally stayed on a bearing was necessary," and this: "I don't need to bury my head in a compass to keep a course, and only need reference to one every so often"

From what I have done, I have to agree... and jeeze "burying one's head" while on a nice open water passage... would really suck.

I think the only thing that was in question was that over time, without some sort of reference, you can be steering in any direction... and this you confirmed.