To answer just one of your questions, many commands have a patch mode as -p. At this point I rarely just git add, it's always git add -p. A side benefit is that you get a chance to review your own code, make sure you cleaned everything up, and can't accidentally commit something.
And you may be interested in the Gitless papers, they are a very interesting approach. I personally think I've got a good enough sense of Git to generally use it pretty effectively (and I'd say with somewhat high-level thinking, though you may disagree), though I'll admit that's after reading the Git Book a few times.
Honestly, my opinion is that most devs just rush their work all the time, and having a different model of version control can't stop them from doing so. Careful, measured practice is the solution, but that's often a hard argument to make in the current industry.
And you may be interested in the Gitless papers, they are a very interesting approach. I personally think I've got a good enough sense of Git to generally use it pretty effectively (and I'd say with somewhat high-level thinking, though you may disagree), though I'll admit that's after reading the Git Book a few times.
Honestly, my opinion is that most devs just rush their work all the time, and having a different model of version control can't stop them from doing so. Careful, measured practice is the solution, but that's often a hard argument to make in the current industry.