Yeah, just as Adrian said, it’s not lazy, just different workflows. Your approach will depend on your situation. Here’s other courses that heavily use edge flow, holding edges, subsurf, etc. They are oldies but goodies, with timeless knowledge:
https://cgcookie.mavenseed.com/courses/modeling-a-sci-fi-helmet-in-blender
https://cgcookie.mavenseed.com/courses/modeling-a-post-apocalyptic-vehicle
https://cgcookie.mavenseed.com/courses/introduction-to-hard-surface-modeling