So I shouldn't be training to automatically disengage my holster's retention devices when I draw? I am supposed to consciously think about how to activate this and then rotate that in order to get the gun out? It's bad to just think "draw" and automatically draw it?
Just because you can learn to do something automatically doesn't mean you can't also try to be aware of what you're doing.
A lot of people can ride a bicycle without actually being aware of how they are steering it, broken down into the multiple things they are subconsciously doing. In a high speed quick decision emergency, they might actually have cause to THINK, because the situation is maybe slightly different than anything they have done before, regarding the amount of turn they need to make at the current speed. Or maybe they will consciously think about steering (or some aspect of it) for the first time, simply because it's a moment of life and death and there is only one chance to choose and correctly execute the right action. If they had been conscious of what they were doing all along, their instinct and conscious decision will be congruous, which is probably the better scenario. If they have not, they will have a moment of doubt, and a moment may be all they have to act.
This is more or less a personal anecdote. It so happened to me after months of comfortably riding a motorcycle. I clearly remember that "oh ****!" moment of conscious thought and the doubt and realization I had at the time. In that brief moment of time dilation, I became painfully aware that I didn't actually consciously know what to do; I made the conscious decision to completely trust my instinct. This was scary, because I was doing things I had never done, before, without understanding why. And I would have probably died if I had been wrong. As it turns out, I threw the bike into a turn harder, faster, and tighter than I could have previously imagined (correctly). I can see how/why a lot of people maybe have died in similar situations, either through indecision or through the incorrect action/execution. After that, I immediately studied the physics and experimented with the mechanics, by becoming actively conscious of the execution, until I understood exactly what I was doing and why I was doing it, so I would never have to blindly trust my instinct, again.
No, I don't know how this relates to firearms, exactly. Maybe Tex Grebner shooting himself is a better example.