I think the method you describe would indeed be superior to pure brute force. In my case, my intuition was guiding my fingers a lot I'm sure. I also did prioritize certain elements (e.g. I didn't try chords which I knew wouldn't fit the style). The brute force came in at the level of searching through elements that were generated by my intuition and/or consciously prioritized. My intuition was getting trained in the process. The more I think about it, the more it sounds like I was doing exactly what you describe.