"The Corners Don't Matter" or why 4-4 Opening is OK

So, my opening strategy has gone as follows:

1. Clueless - play anywhere and get beat up. This was the chaos of a beginner.
2. Imitate Others - I started playing 4-4 since it seemed common and maybe a symmetrical opening would be easier to memorize. I kept getting attacked and undermined. It seemed too hard to save the precious corner.
3. Read a little - Picked the 4-3, 3-5 opening. This supposedly secured a corner with 2 moves rather than the 3 moves required for the 4-4. It works ok, but I often don't get that second stone on 3-5 down before my opponent invades.

Hmmmm...if my opponent can block my 2 move corner how would I ever get a 4-4 corner secured that requires 3 moves? Answer: Almost never!

***LIGHT BULB***

I realized that even though the corners are worth a lot and you WANT to get entire corners to yourself, your opponent will never let you play 3 unopposed moves unless they are getting "adequate compensation" somewhere else on the board. So, in fact you have to assume you won't get the corners you stake out with a 4-4.

What you can expect is to split the corner fairly evenly with your opponent via some joseki. (Joseki's are famous series of moves more or less Go's version of Chess openings.)

So, a 4-4 opening is a one move method of setting yourself up to split the corner rather than attempting a 4-3 & 3-5 opening that requires 2 moves to try to get the whole corner.

Looking at a 4-4 opening move as a "quick 1-move initiation of a corner splitting series" rather than the "start of an attempted 3 move unopposed series to capture the corner" changes the way I see the opening and the whole initiation of the power struggle on the board.