Alan,
Glad to be of help. Despite the length of my brief answer,
there really is a lot more to the subject. Still, as an overview, it should help explain some of the pilot comments you've read.
Just to muddy the waters a bit, I think the French term for the "blip" switch was a "coupez" switch. But I don't speak Frech, and I may be misspelling the term.
One engine that doesn't fit into either category mentioned above is the water-cooled
radial engine used in the Salmson S2A observation planes. A radial engine has the cylinders arrayed in a circle around a central crankshaft, but they are stationary and the crankshaft turns. The radial engine became
very popular between the wars and into WWII -- especially in America.
However, almost all radial engines are air-cooled. In fact, that's the reason for having the cylinders exposed to the airflow. But the Salmson engine was water-cooled.
I don't know much about the operation of that engine, but I've not read many complaints about it either, so I guess it ran pretty well.
Regards,