I agree with you Joe. I've seen that happen in meetings where "if it's not in the big book, it's not discussed." Nonsense!
My sponsor is very good about using the big book, or passages in the big book, to give me proper coping skills and tools of recovery for when life happens.
Not sure where that mentality, or when, it came about. Bill and Dr. Bob era old-timers didn't even have a book the first 4 years of the program.
Zube