It comes down to different styles. I like killing people, not standing toe to toe with them. Making someone flee is never a victory to me. I am still "winning" in my mind if I get run off by twist's faggot warrior a 99/100 times and generally don't stand a chance against him if that one time I happen to nuke him while he's convulsing somewhere. If I am taking pk seriously this is generally how I go about picking fights with very tough characters, I make sure I am prepped just well enough to survive and not get trapped/lagged, even if just barely, and then just keep trying to catch them in a bad way until it finally works. There is nobody who cannot be killed or caught in a bad spot by somebody patient and mobile enough. As far as I am concerned that's still competing with the toughest even if I get killed doing it once or twice, because they are still at a very serious risk of being dropped at the wrong moment. I don't need wavedancer or pass phrases for boats to follow people around and pick on them.
As for your boat example, that's silly. I take it you fought on the ocean because you thought there was nowhere he could summon you where you would be trapped, when he summoned you anyway that should have told you something. And besides, that's going to work, what, all of one time before you know he can do that? If it's that vital you can go there later and learn what he did. But I'm not going to sit around and scrap for every piece of info, even if it is useful, because I don't have to. One death is one death, gear is a big deal but never lasts forever, and if this guy is so beefy he probably has better shit than you anyway. You learn to compete by actually trying, you find out what information is relevant through experience.