It's making your downshifts smoother, hardly defeating the purpose!
But how do you downshift smoothly by holding a RPM? If you're downshifting, your revs should jump up, which means if you're holding a steady RPM, you're going to get driveline shock. Are you saying you're basically slipping out the clutch?
"Blipping" the throttle is a very quick attempt at rev-matching on a downshift. If you were to downshift and engage the clutch without touching the throttle the engine would begin to drop to idle and the clutch will do the work to bring the engine up to speed instead of expanding gasses in the cylinders. This is just extra, unnecessary, wear on the clutch.
Basically yes...let's say, I needed 5k RPM to do the same speed at a lower gear, just rev up to 5k and let go of the clutch. Of course, you put the throttle after you get out of gear.
Yes, exactly...it would be your 2nd and 3rd scenario, no need to actually pulse the throttle, just rev up to the desired RPM. On the first scenario, I let go of the throttle after rev matching, of course, stupid coyote does have a engine brake delay, takes like a second before it actually down revs.
Thanks for all the good info. When you let off just pretty slowly, is it still "riding the clutch" and harmful? Or is it not really that much of an issue since it's just a small amount of time?It's making your downshifts smoother, hardly defeating the purpose!
The clutch isn't a on/off affair. You're matching the speeds of the transmission and the engine. Unless you rev match at the exact perfect RPM every single time (impossible for a human), you'll need to modulate how fast you let off the clutch based on the situation. If you slowed down your clutch action and you're getting better rev matching results, you're on the right track my friend.
If the rev matching is more or less on point, there shouldn't be much wear and you'll be releasing it quicker (of course there will be a wee bit of wear, but that's what is supposed to do). The farther away you are from the right RPM, the more wear there would be, either the clutch or synchros will get a beating.
As long as it's a gradual slow, release, then no. Riding the clutch is when say, you hold the clutch in the bite point for a long time or if you hold the clutch in when waiting for a stop light (wears the throw out bearing), or if you're holding the clutch in the bite point to hold the car steady on a hill (NEVER do that), or if when you're coming up off a start and you keep the clutch engaged when you've already got a enough revs to drive freely without the clutch engaged.
). That's way more wear on your clutch than say slowly releasing the clutch, giving it a little gas, and feeling when it bites so you know when you can fully come off the clutch. 
need to do the spacer mod for the gas pedal, it makes the gas pedal more flush with the brake pedal during braking. It helps immensely. And very cheap modification.
That's not 'granny shifting'. Drivers of 18-wheelers call it 'floating gears'.
Holding the engine revs up with the clutch fully disengaged can let the input shaft and countershaft slow down well below where the synchros want them to be, where they'll make the synchros have to speed them up (and work a little harder in the process) to get the shaft speeds matched. This can even happen on an upshift if the weather is cold enough and the gear lube stiff enough, and you don't run 1st gear out quite far enough because its oil is cold and a little stiff.
Don't you lift off the throttle for easy/normal upshifts? Same thing, really, that while you're moving the shift lever you're letting the input side revs decay to match what the new gear wants. Only for a downshift the revs are too low to begin with so you have to kick them "upstairs" first so they can fall back.