Peter

I hear what you're saying; jazz is/was primarily an oral tradition and is best learned through listening. Being aware of things like ornamentation, melodic cells, target notes on downbeats are best used a quick shorthand ways of understanding what's happening in a good line, no more than that. I agree also with the overemphasis on chord scales and modes and theory in general instead of listening. To say that knowing your scales is a guarantor of good solos is like saying that knowing the alphabet is a guarantee of becoming a good public speaker.

My suspicions about licks comes from hearing too many students string together so many regurgitated phrases out of context in the wrong places, and with no real attempt to personalize them or integrate them into an organic statement of their own.
There's also the problem of students showing little understanding about the difference between a fully formed melodic phrase and simply repeating/sequencing a 4 note cell throughout a scale or over the course of a progression. This kind of pattern is best used IMO as ways of linking one melodic idea to the next.

If on the other hand stimulates the kind of learning process you mention then its certainly a valid method. One lick can lead to many others and theory can help expand upon and highlight some of the things you can do to come up with variations of your own. But theory can't be allowed to dictate what is and isn't played to the exclusion of your own ear any more than simply playing licks verbatim by rote can be used as a replacement for developing a line.

Regards

Alan