I wouldn't initially have expected being consciously aware to be necessary for mastery. I do find that being able to teach brings you to a new level, so there's something to that. I'm also able to cut my search space more concisely by being able to identify/name the problem or solution path than to find it by feel.

That's an interesting point about a more 'wooden' result. I believe that has a name where being consciously aware of what you're doing lowers ability, or in this case creativity or subjective evaluation. I believe that dip/plateau can again be surpassed as if you'd learned consciously first then internalized to gain proficiency. Alternatively, you could 'get in the zone' by turning off analytical overthinking somehow.