I don't think I've seen very much instructional material on counterpoint that cautions students to not attempt to internalize the entire litany of CP rules in one swing.

I think it's an important thing to emphasize. When a person tries to write contrapuntal music

they'll see firsthand why all the rules exist and once you understand why they exist, you don't really have to "follow" them so much as just naturally embody them in what you write.

By which I mean, if that's a little cryptic, that if you break counterpoint rules, it's usually gonna be obvious if you just understand the purpose of them by making the mistakes the rules forbid, e.g. no parallel fifths makes no sense until one of your lines suddenly disappears

and once you've broken enough CP rules, those frames of reference mean you don't have to just arbitrarily memorize a list of laws. I've never been close to musical academia, so idk what the standard pedagogy is but, based on what I've read

a really helpful way to learn/teach counterpoint might be to have the person transcribe each line in a "bad" song (maybe one they wrote) as far as CP is concerned and see if they can identify why it's hard to hear based on the rules of CP

e.g. lines crossing, parallel 5ths/8ves, resolving dissonances on certain beats, etc. Each of these rules is basically just describing why/when a line is hard to hear without the benefit of distinct timbre to separate them

also, take no one asked for: I don't at all like music that uses rigid CP as a songwriting framework rather than as a technique. I admire Bach et al. tremendously, but I personally can't relate to the lifechanging experiences people seem to have upon hearing a tight fugue

which is to say, I feel that such rigid observation of form over function is so limiting, which on one hand, is precisely what gives fugues, canons, etc. their distinctly baroque flavor, but is also why I also regard CP as a technique rather than a framework.

This all culminates in what is, imo, a very interesting takeaway: there's sort of a tradeoff between intellectualization of music and emotional precision. Fugues and the like require a level of planning that almost completely cripples "emotional fine-tuning"

by which I don't mean fugues can't be emotional, but that 16 bars deep into one, you're not gonna have a lot of flex room if a particular chord that you're pigeonholed into using doesn't match the vibe you're after