... Slobodan, you mean you wouldn't know to use the 'rule' from instinct unless it had an official name hung onto it?
Rob, I agree you can't teach someone talent, but you cripple a lot of talent by not teaching them how best to use it and develop it.
Every significant artist I can think of (with the exception of initial naive artists) went to school. Enough said. Michelangelo and Leonardo, Monet and Picasso. Academic school or apprenticeship. And please do not tell me all they learned there was how to mix colors and select brushes.
Teaching can be by someone else, or learning by self-study. You can learn "official names" for various techniques and rules, or you can observe what others did (as in your case) and copy it, consciously or subconsciously. But learning you did. However, someone telling you a thing or two along the way will speed up the process.
Teaching talent will help them turn into masters, artists and trailblazers. Teaching talentless people (like myself) won't get them there, but it will make them better photographers today than they were yesterday. Enough to make us happy, if not famous.