Oh come on dgb. Chess is like rugby. You only learn by getting your clock cleaned, and figuring out how to stop it happening.
I can still remeber learning to play ches from a jewish friend of mine when I was 10. At first I would just try to get everyone in a tight group But you are totally correct. I always played people who would kick my butt. It gives you a much steeper learning curve. Its the same in MTW. I used face Amp day after day. That could really get deppressing after a while. When I made it to the chess team I was the number 4 man. I always practiced against our #1 man. We were so good that when we played they would put me against the other teams first player and I would win at least half my games while the rest of our team wiped out the opposition. But I had a bet with our best player that I could beat him. He said I could play him 100 games and never win. Well I beat him in game #99 Ive never been a quitter as some of you may have noticed.