I'm glad you joined in Sir, very good advice!!I wasn't going to join this thread because the members have such a wide background of experience, I don't think anything I add will be beneficial.
But I will put this out there. Do with it as you will.
I'm speaking only about RFBR not centerfire.
Flags, all flags, lie. They tell you what happened, not what is happening.
Sighters tell you where your bullet went in a particular condition. If you can tell that same condition is out there you have a good chance of your next bullet going like your last.
Shooting the lulls e.g. waiting for the flags to drop and hang is a losing strategy.
Rimfire has far too much vertical for that. It will take two or three shots to confirm you haven't been riding the wind with your last shots. (If you don't understand this, don't worry about it. Only with time on the range will it be important.)
Shoot the push. Find a hold off that works for what you think is the predominate condition and shoot it.
What you feel around you is your best wind flag. If you are about to pull the trigger but something in the back of your mind tells you something isn't right, don't shoot.
You can't give up shots and win with competition being what it is today. Make conditions beat you, don't beat yourself.
When you finish shooting a target you should be exhausted, if you are not, you aren't trying hard enough.
TKH
Sounds like you're speaking from experience and not just pulling it out of your butt.