I pretty much follow those rules, except for the break. Im still upgrading my gear, and most of the time im either farming more honor or working out rep's. When we go to Arenas, we usually stay playing for 2 or 3 hours max. Seriously, i don't dodge that much, only when it's a super geared team, still we face again, and again. But it comes down more to what tools they have, like 2 BE's and a Tauren, with 3/4 aoe fears, thats devastating. I also took one lesson past 1550 rating, im not there fighting morons. At 1600 i find ppl going out of LOS in the most stupid places, completly avoiding my nuke and fearing me allover the place. Still i lack patience. It's a lot better now, both me and my partner, we are taking lessons from the mistakes we did in the past.
It's a mix of learning along with rating increase, but having to win 2 games for having a 1 game loss of 20 points, its annoying.

In the future, ofc i will do arenas all the time, i will eventually end my honor grind someday.