The Houses are timeless.
They hold the past present and future all within the same moment.
Within the 12 Houses all life's experiences can be accounted for.
All it takes is for the actors to enter and the play begins.
Within each chart all Houses exist as a potential for experience.
So, no matter where we draw lines/cusps, the realm of experience awaits.
But it is not quite like going from one room of a building, through a door into another room. Experience is fluid and like blue turning into green or green to yellow, there is most often a morphing from one to the other as we make our way around the rainbow-wheel of the chart.
I do think there is something to the idea of "Resonance."
One House System may work well for some and not so much for others.
Therefore, each must experiment and find which system resonates for them. And of course, different systems may work better in different forms of astrology. Most recognize that.
Recently, in another post, JUPITERASC posted a link to a long interview with Robert Hand, one of the most well known contributors to astrology in our time. Hand went so far as to write a book on the merits of the Whole House System... he believes in it that much! His rational makes sense—to the degree I understand it.
And at the same time I believe a chart is sort of a "cosmic tuner/receiver" that enables a good astrologer to derive meaning from the information in a chart regardless of the placement of a few bisecting lines. Part of the art is in the math and part is in the sensitivity of the astrologer to tune in and understand the person or event the chart represents.
Of course, Houses are only one consideration when looking at a chart. If two astrologers were to only examine aspects, for example, they would very likely arrive at many of the same observations, even though they maybe using different House systems. So the emphasis on House Systems must be kept in perspective to the whole analysis. They are a layer of investigation.
Don't underestimate the human tendency to want to compartmentalize things. Our automatic inclination to put things into this category or that—with definite lines between—is very strong. A planet that lands right on a House Cusp can really rock the boat if an astrologer is looking for sharp, defined, black and white categories.
It's for this reason I like to use the 40+ shades of gray approach... ;-)
House cusps should not be as rigid and defined as we would want them to be... regardless of which House System we use.
If you want to use House Cusps, recognize them, give them some weight but not a critical amount.
Then, just be flexible and let the chart speak to you.