I think that what you may be missing is awareness. When you do a RC in RL or a dream you already have some degree of awareness which gives you critical thinking. I think that if you do the RC in a machinical way with very few lucidity or awareness it will not work.

When you do RC do it fully with full lucidity. When you do that everything is more vibrant (yes im talking about real life not dreams) but even in dreams with greater awareness everything is more real and vibrant. RC are just a tool to rise your awareness and critical thinking, they are not magic by themself. Thats why sometimes you are lucid even without doing them because you have already that needed state of mind.

I think that its not the technique the most important thing but the state of mind, the attitude about it.
Thats why if you think that RC are not important or effective you will automatically do it wrong, with wrong attitude.