Right on, man. Good post. The part I bolded is VERY important and often overlooked.
People always talk about these hypothetical survival situations as if they are going to be snaring animals or hunting and with hand made bow, making friction fires, and sleeping on beds of evergreen inside a debris shelter. It's a very romanticized and unrealistic image.
The truth is, that great fantasy of surviving on the land will never happen unless you go out into the woods with the intention of doing it.
A real survival situation is the one where you slipped down a cliff because your pack was (ironically enough) loaded too heavy with 'survival' gear and you weren't sure footed enough to handle the trail, and break a leg. Or the time when you swing your axe around a bit too carelessly and plunge it into your thigh. Or even just the time when the weather suddenly turns for the worse and you are stuck in a total white out snow storm, and soaking wet, with night approaching quickly.
Those are real survival situations. Your snare wire and fire piston ain't gonna do shit for you when that happens.
When I bring new people backpacking with me, and they ask me what the most important item to bring is, do you know what I tell them? It's not a knife. No, I tell them to
bring a good, waterproof rain jacket and knowledge of first aid. That is what will save your life in the real world. It might not be as romantic as a blade, but it's the truth.
Building fire and shelter is out of the question when you fall and hit your head, unable to even see straight. Putting your raincoat on and crawling under a log for the night, on the other hand, isn't. You wont be warm, you wont be comfortable, but with a raincoat you will stay reasonably dry. Being wet is what causes hypothermia. Hypothermia is what causes death.
edit: of course, when its -20 out and you don't have fire, you're dead anyway. so don't hit your head, and handle that axe with caution!
then use that to keep a shelter warm elsewhere 
