It's an approach that I sympathize with. I made a study of my own last summer, or perhaps the summer before that, where I looked at player combinations and diminishing returns from skill. My preliminary findings was that depending on how good the best player on a line was, he saw a diminishing return from the second best player. The better your line driver is, the less it mattered how good his best wing man was. And that return was even less when you took it another step and looked at the effect the third best player had on his linemates.
I find that logical. Better players need to rely less on their linemates, which leads to more consistent results. A Crosby can play with anyone, because he can do whatever they can't. Two lesser but still good players can still get great results if they complement each other well, but are more dependent on each other.
I also think it's quite logical that someone who plays on a line with two great players will find that they can cover a lot of the workload. That means that overall ability might mean less than having something specific to offer. Sometimes that might be just shooting ability, other times it is ability to make space, or being a defensive conscience.