Having money invested in the pot, in the sense that your steals are half a big blind cheaper, yes, makes your steal range somewhat wider, but the difference is not significant as the main reason you raise is still because you have position. For instance, being called raising ATC OTB is not a huge deal at all, whereas defending ATo OOP even vs a very loose player can put you in a far less comfortable situation even though your hand is way ahead of the button range.
In the end it's hard to argue. I think we simply disagree; I play very loosely in 6max and FR, up to 30/24, and one of my favourite coaches, BoboFittos, plays even looser, and I assure you he is a profitable player. It is perhaps because I am an SSNL player and have never gone past 200NL, but the vast majority of players I've seen I do actually consider "very weak", not necessary weak-tight, but having lots of leaks and taking transparent lines, and unthoughtful bet-sizing.
I am raising 100% OTB vs the vast majority of players at full ring because the majority of them are terrible. You cannot really reach 28-32 VPIP without playing this loosely, and as even at high stakes some players can play this loosely profitably, I think you cannot legitimately argue that playing loosely is bad in most reasonable circumstances.
As for the Ax vs suited gapper debate, Ax is strong, but in the end I am folding them OOP vs a solid TAG (TAG as far as HU goes) just as much as I am folding weak gappers, not much different from HU.
As for a hand like K7s K8o, you are right it is not strong. I am not calling because I am way ahead of villain's range though. I am calling because of a) pot odds b) implied odds (and c) image).
Why implied odds? I feel that I will make better decisions, even with position disadvantage, against a large percentage of players. At the same time, I will fold these hands or even stronger vs good aggressive players, but there are very few of those.
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