Personally, I'm very flexible when it comes to orbs, especially in the case of applying aspects. I say this as a result of experience - I've seen in charts where planets that are supposedly too far to have an effect on each other manifest quite obviously as an aspectual pattern in the personality and life.
In the case of applying aspects, a way you can test to see if an aspect is truly operating in the life, is to count the degrees between the two planets and see if there was a specific event that exemplifies the nature of the aspect. For example, in my chart, there are three aspects that are either way beyond "conventional" orbs or occur across signs, yet still they have had an effect in my life. The aspects are 9 degree Sun-Moon square across signs, Mercury square Saturn at 9 degrees orb and a Mercury-Jupiter conjunction at 13 degrees orb.
Mercury square Saturn - perfected at age 9: This was the time when I was in the 4th grade going into the 5th. I did a 180 from how I was the previous year: I was very energetic, doing 3 sports for my school at a competitive level and playing rough day in day with friends and classmates. This period was around the time when my mind took a more serious and somber turn. I stopped playing sports for my school, and began to read a lot - books on science, history and animals. I also took to reading a lot of encyclopedias at this time.My sociability dropped around this time as well. I also took up chess around this time. The TV was always on either national geographic or animal planet.
Sun square Moon - perfected at age 9: Same time period. It was at this time that the relationship between my mother and father started breaking apart. Fights and arguments between them progressively increased in intensity until their eventual divorce.
Mercury conjunct Jupiter - perfected at age 13: It was around this time that my current interests started coming to the fore. Around this time, I got really into conspiracies, esotericism, philosophies, secret societies, etc. This was mirrored by a transit of Neptune/Jupiter/Chiron landing exactly on my moon in Aquarius. I'm still feeling the effects of that time period to this day. Definitely is a qualitatively different type of "research"as opposed to the Mercury/Saturn period. This time-period and its results are why I'm even on this obscure astrology forum, typing a reply to this thread.
I really think that tight orbs are overrated.