That said, I was once told that a good technique to learning how to go fast is to try to run in really high gears. The idea being that whenever you make a mistake, you are "punished" twice when you cannot compensate for your error by whacking the throttle since the high gears will give you a slow response, and therefore, you will strive to ride as smooth as possible, find the ideal lines through curves and generally just plan your position on the road better. Suppose that is leading to an Alex Rins (motogp) kind of style in the end, as he is super smooth. Probably not a bad target for someone mainly riding on the street.
Respectfully and without any intention to antagonize, I have to say this is a really bad technique. In fact, this technique will increase, not lessen, risk to the rider. This sounds like something an elderly BMW rider on an R60 would say at a rally.
There are two topics to unpack here - one is power management for safety and the other is cornering.
An unwound engine makes for a dangerous motorcycle. The motorcycle doesn't know whether it's on a straight street, a windy road or a race track. It just responds to your inputs. As an onboard engineer, you want to be in the motorcycle's power band because of the optimized responsiveness and stability as you wisely pointed out in your first paragraph. This is not about hanging off the bike and dragging a knee or doing a time trial on a public canyon road but about operating the motorcycle the way it was designed to be. More than once I've needed power to get ahead of deer, avoid a driver, get around an obstacle (fallen tree) before my decision space closed...the list goes on. Operating the motorcycle in too high of a gear gives away all engine braking, steals precious time with an emergency shift at the worst possible time and puts increased reliance on your braking to stop short of the problem when perhaps the better choice is to get clear of the problem. Running one's bike in too high a gear is negative training - it induces a bad habit and is not any kind of a useful drill or exercise.
The best way to select your trajectory is to get the eyes up. The next time you ride, try "warming up the eyes". Stand where you have a view of objects out to 300-500m. Now hold your thumb up at arm's length. Pick three objects at varying distances and laterally spread. Focus your eyes on your thumb, then jump your eyes to the first object, to the next object and to the last object and then back to your thumb. Do this with your left hand and then your right hand.
Now when you get on your bike, say out loud to yourself in your helmet "eyes up!" and then "scan back, scan back" followed by "eyes up!" and "scan back, scan back." This is called "jumping the eyes". When you say, "eyes up!" the object is to look as far forward as you can see. If you field of view is limited, slow your speed. Field of view opens up, your pace can pick up.
Another technique is, "Eyes to entry, eyes to apex and eyes to exit." Say this over and over out loud in your helmet as you run along your favorite twisty road. If you dork up a corner, say to yourself, "Next apex, (
insert name)!"
Both of these techniques will greatly improve your trajectory through corners and help with early identification of hazards.
And let's not "whack" the throttle. Roll on? Yes, definitely. Let's focus on being smooth with those inputs. We never want to upset the chassis or surprise the tires.