What hell is with all the miniraises?

[ig06]

People seem to be very dismissive of min-raises because of the deeply ingrained "standard" wisdom that only donks do it. However I think it is worth considering that a highly experienced player who is one of the most respected posters amongst the long-term higher stakes players is recommending considering all bet sizes (as appropriate to the situation).
I personally don't ever min-raise but I would be fascinated to hear more from limon (and Matt Flyyn) on the subject of bet-sizing. I'm also interested in how the min-raising concept applies pre-flop. In Chen and Ankenmann's new book they talk about doing this when opening UTG. Below is what I wrote in another thread but as I recall, they were actually talking about min-raises UTG (my copy of the book isn't to hand :-(). I still don't know where I stand on this:

FWIW, Chen and Ankenman recommend raising less when opening in EP than in LP. Their reasoning is that you are trying to strike a balance between dealing with when someone still to act has a premium hand (when you don't want to play a big pot except with the top end of your raising range) and gaining FE when no-one does. The more players left to act, the higher the likelihood that you run into a big hand, so Chen/Ankemann recommend raising less in EP with the idea you lose less when you have to fold to a re-raise while retaining the option of putting more money in with your best hands. Conversely, if you are in LP you are less likely to run into a big hand and can therefore afford to raise more to increase FE/extract more value (depending on which part of your rasing range you are in).
I would love to see thoughts on this. My own view is that FE is often just as great when opening UTG as OTB because EP raises get more respect than button open raises and this somewhat balances the increased risk of running into a big hand when opening in EP. I think the argument gets more difficult then because table dynamics will have some influence on 3-bet/4-bet ranges which will in turn affect your attitude to being 3-bet when opening in LP. Anyway I'll stop rambling and just say I'm not sure where I stand on this and it would interesting to see who agrees/disagrees with Chen/Ankeman.