I noticed his racecraft wasn't great at the 2009 Spanish GP and everything I saw after that just confirmed my suspicion. And I've said for a while that Red Bull should have let him do a season of GP2 so I do agree with you.Is it him or is it the car? Its odd that someone so "quick" should have so little going for him.
I've said since early 2009 when it became obvious that his raceraft was weak that he should have had a year in GP2 or a full year in WSR before coming to F1.
Its too late now but SV is at least improving. He's made a concious effort to be more aggressive on track and driving such a good car does not hurt the confidence to try things.
He is far from the finished article but he may get there if he does not suffer a massive knock to his confidence by being beaten to the WDC by LH, JB or FA in inferior cars. Being beaten by MW may actually be a good thing as it would force him to keep raising his game without destroying his confidence.
You are right that he seems to have taken note of the criticism of his racecraft and become more aggressive, but a lot of the time he is going overboard now. Turkey, the start swerves, that move on Sutil at Silverstone (He was very lucky not to take his own wing off with that), its aggression like they do in the junior series. Maybe he still has time to mature though.
I'm not sure if being beaten by Webber is doing him much good. It forces him to raise his game but I don't think it does do much for his confidence. Despite outwardly saying its good to have a competitive team mate to push you, I would guess that secretly he thought he would end up as the de facto #1.