Well, this is a lot of name dropping, but I could drop a few names and I'm about as far from a credited (let alone marketable) screenwriter as you could imagine. So I don't think name dropping is either a negative or a positive. It’s just a byproduct of trying to sell a script.

What I'm least impressed by in the Screenwriter's Advice category is the "thou shalt nots." Easy to pick a hole in any forbidden dictum. Harder to describe what does work.

That's why I find Tarantino's advice the most helpful here: it's actually a positive suggestion in negative format: "Don’t write about something you wouldn’t die for." = "Write only about something you would fight for the death for." That's sound. The trick is to find a studio (producer, actor, director--anyone in charge) who would also die to make your film. But that IS possible.