Probably we've all come along questions regarding the usefullness of stances, uke waza, hikite and so on. I tried to answer some of them here:
https://shotokantimes.com/2019/06/22/the-relation-between-kihon-kata-and-kumite-some-answers/
It's actually the answer to questions raised by a reader of Shotokan Times earlier:
https://shotokantimes.com/2019/06/15/readers-question-relation-between-kihon-kata-and-kumite/