I'm surprised to hear that people cull in-camera based on the EVF or screen. I could never do that because the camera's display isn't detailed enough compared to my computer screen. Many times an image will look sharp on the camera's screen (even after magnifying) only to find out later focus is misplaced. Similarly it's difficult for me to select between two similar pictures with slight different background movement -- for example a duck splashing. I never look at my shots in the field, because it just takes time from shooting and it's not like I can reshoot if I missed.
I'm still getting my sea legs with the R52 too and know what you mean about picture bloat. The first thing I did was dial back from 30 to 20 FPS. There will be times when 30 FPS will be more useful but 20 is fine for most birding and animal opportunities, and like you said, I have no need or time for 1/3 more culling workload.
As for pre-shooting, my muscle memory is only do a full press when ready to shoot since I use BBF, so I'm still trying to train myself to half-press when shooting perched birds, so that hasn't created a glut of photos for me yet. Also since I dialed back to 20FPS pre-shooting only takes 10 shots that's 5 frames less there too when I remember to use it.
