It was kinda easy for me to become CN with yau, what I did was do an avg of 12 with each cross colour and then I was pretty much used to building any cross with any colour.
Yeah I was kinda relying on Feliks/Giovanni + others to keep pushing standard reduction to its limits so that I wouldn't have to switch, but now Feliks, Erik, Milan etc have switched. The only fast 444ers left who still use standard reduction are Giovanni (not sure if he cubes anymore) and a handful of asians like asia, nakaji, yu sajima, jonathan tan etc. It might be the case that in Asia, the method isn't that that well known, but I think I read somewhere that Mitsuki Gunji used it for his 30.xy single at the world championship 2011. Also, Yu Byeong-Seon (who appears to average sub 40) definitely uses it. Here's his youtube channel:
http://www.youtube.com/dbqudtjs
Great average Feliks! Keep working on the cross building haha