Mat Bowles

On the specific point of "less" versus "fewer", I think you're wrong. See this analysis on Language Log (http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003775.html), the main point of which is that "less" was fine for Alfred the Great, and for nine centuries thereafter, until Robert Baker opined that "fewer" seemed to him more aesthetically pleasing, at which point, for no apparent reason, it became A Rule You Must Follow rather than a matter of style and preference.