I agree with a lot of what you said Gavin, that this last chapter came across as being contrived. As for the lack of tactics, I would imagine that at some point Yama-ji had a brain when it came to tactics but since he's so powerful he just brute-forces everything and doesn't need to worry about tactics, until maybe now.
I really don't know where Kubo is going with the story. It doesn't seem Aizen can lose this battle without a lot of things going right for Ichigo and company which seems rather unlikely at this point. Aizen winning the battle seems more likely but how are all the wounded going to escape? I don't see Aizen just letting them get away to regroup/recover. Who knows.
