I asked the question whether others would follow the same pathway because I thought I was missing some obvious clues which were characteristic of a technique "used to highlight multiple subjects in one photo". I'd never heard of it before. It sounded well-established and this was but another exemplar.
I rather regret I asked the question in light of the surprising answer, and I guess I should curb my curiosity. I have supervised many Masters and Ph.D students (Biochem.) and curiosity is a vital everyday requisite. However, I'm not too serious or snakey, this is just a (life-long) past-time, for me at least.
My shooting tends to follow a percentage success rate too (unfortunately very low..), and I agree deletion of those images that don't make an immediate connection is a good idea (certainly made easy and cheap by digital). If there is any technique which helps organise the often numerous subjects, particularly within a landscape, whether to emphasise them, or more often, to highlight certain ones only, then I'm tempted to learn more.
"Please sir, may I have more?"
Whack.
Ouch.