SC...my path has been a somewhat winding one, having learned from books and DVDs. When I really got into meditating, I did embryonic breathing for ~5, 8 months with a bit of a focus on longevity breathing (40 second breaths are cool as hell
,) tried SC for ~4-6 months or so, couldnt get too much going. Dailies have brought me in and out of practice since, but I was never able to get a heck of a lot going on with just doing SC. I've been practicing about 3½ years. After doing 2 months of kunlun I've got tenfold of the qi sensations I used to. I've actually had this bugger of a stuck spot in my back at gv8-ub18-47 for a few weeks and in the past few days I had an interesting kunlun 'body-orgasm' of sorts and it kinda freed it up...I can now bring the qi back there to the centerline and bring it up to the crown, over to the third eye, and back down the front. It keeps coming back, but now that I can actually do something with the energy when I feel it stick, it really doesnt bother me!
Some of my cross legged I've done since then I can really feel GV & CV energetically. I've also had a couple interesting ni wan point experiences, but I have had those a few times before in my life at certain times...it seems like kunlun tapped that somehow. Actually, that's when I started having a lot more qi sensations, after that first ni wan point experience I had with it.
So in all, I dont know that I have really seen too much benefit from doing small circulation practice. imho its absolutely necessary to know about, but it just didnt bring me too much in the results department, at least not on its own. I've gotten far more benefit from doing 8 brocades than SC. Again, that is my own personal experience and I certainly wouldnt compare myself to any 'norm.'
Not that Dr Yang's practices arent solid, I still rely very much on them and his theory is more solid than any I've seen. A very good Root. But kunlun has
seriously catalyzed everything I've learned from him.