Mac,

With greatest respect, although I know that what you are advising is straight ahead jazz theory, I must say that I have always struggled with this tritone theory stuff which I have heard from many parties including Levine, Phil Greg, Aebersold, and many many others. The trouble I have with it is that immediately I do it (and I have gone and played some just now), my ears are stating to me "What the hell did you have to go and do that for!" and "Here, this line is much better, and this one and this one and this one.

Didn't Fux call it 'the Devil in musica'?

Now I am not stating that anything you said is incorrect, but I am stating that my ears don't hear it this way - here is my perspective

Firstly the Tritone is the most dissonant interval apart from maybe the major seventh. In tghe cycle its trhe most distant cousin. Dissonance IS important, and is part of the color of music, its what enable one to travel from one resolution to the next. But you dont hand around on it especially on a downbeat - unless you want to create unease.
Next you say 'never' play the fifth. But all triads built on any mode except the locrian, have a perfect fifth and I have no aural objection to the sound when I play sax, its often a note that I work an idea around.
OK so the fifth is now in the left hand and this makes a difference things do get muddy down there. But if I have a busy patch in a live performance, I foind limiting myself to chord tones, is the best way to go - adding a tritone cwould create dissonance and you would be heard, but I dont think that the note selection would contribute.
In melody terms I use fifths all the time, in fact I see a melody as a liner sequence of notes where one (normally) steps from on beat chord tone to on beat chord tone via either other chord tones or via dissonant tones both in side and outside the scale/key.

As fro my current bass lines they are shapped around the chord tones, I can employ practically any pattern I choose, and if I want to get a little busier in the left I will add step tones which can again be dissonant resolving to - usually - a root or a fifth at the beginning of a beat. Lets say I am playing a C major in the bass then I can work a figure using CEG and then add scale tones on the off beats if its fitting, I can also use other strategies like appraoching any note from a semitone above or below, or I can approach the whole chord from a dissonance of practically any type, and it will sound OK if I resolve appropriately.
If a bass player is present, then working from the fifth - not avoiding it but focussing on it, seems tro make sense - because its sonorous and has a pleasing sound

Maybe I have things fundamentally wrong, but then again I never liked Garner or CHarlie Parker or any of those dissonant players - I am much more Stan Getz

I am not stating that I am right, I have a lot to learn, what I do seems OK to me, and I think is OK for an Audience on some level (what they tell me) but maybe its not jazz, maybe I have a more profound misunderstanding going on. Playing Tritones is not a problem, the problem is wanting to play them.

OK so I think others can correct my misunderstndings..