Quote Originally Posted by Crash
Umm maybe it was done that way because the battle with the inner hollow was never about physical strength, but rather strength of will. In order to keep control of both Zangetsu and Hichigo's powers what Ichigo required wasn't brute strength. He has enough of that to spare. What he needed was to gather his courage and restore his confidence in his own abilities as in the SS arc, instead of sitting around like a little pansy and holding back because he was too scared of his own inner hollow to take any real action. In shorter terms, the whole sequence was about him dispelling the fear he had of his own power to keep it from consuming him.
Uhh... yeah... You just said what I said in long form. He's naive and stupid. A wise intelligent person would figure that out much quicker, as the others have. Ichigo's a blockheaded emo-kid pussy who waves a big-ass sword around. Hiyori's a hot-headed brat. No doubt the others used their minds.