Clippers are not for fades and I am tired of pretending they are

Every new guy I train reaches for the clipper first thing when a fade walks in the door, and every single time the blend line comes out looking like a staircase. Last Tuesday a kid in my chair in Columbus asked for a mid fade, and I watched his cousin at the next station blow through it with a #1 guard and zero bar work, and the back of that dude's head looked like a topo map when he stood up. Here is the thing nobody wants to hear: the clipper sets your baseline, but the bar and your wrist do the actual blend, and you can not fix a hard line by going over it faster. I have been cutting 11 years and I still spend more time on a fade than a flat top because the bar work is where the money is. If you are getting chewed out over lines, put the clipper down and pick up your trimmers and fade blade, then do the cross checking with a comb in every direction. What guard are you guys actually starting with on a skin fade, because I think half the shops I visit are going way too high too early.