Gershon, I am pleased to hear of your satori. I understand how difficult it is to leave a paradigm as ingrained to our gardening genes as cultivation, but as you read about the science, then experience the differences in labor and result as you move toward true no-till, it becomes clear that not everything we are taught or hold to be true is necessarily as it appears...
That is indeed a daunting thought, but we have great need to embrace it on so very many fronts.
By the by, the tilling "necessary" to remove the old plants is based on a need to remove old plants, another practice I have eliminated by cutting and leaving old root systems in the ground. This creates a "vertical composting", channels down through the soil of decomposing material, which studies have shown to be natural channels for the next plants roots to follow down into the soil, opening and aerating said soil more and more... another benefit of Nature eliminated by tilling...
HG