Ah yes, agree with both comments and my thinking also. Now how do we translate to our actual food plots? No till in some form of course the first step, but should we mow more frequently? Run across plots with our atvs and tractors at random using that trampling of unwanted grasses and weeds much as Gallow does with his cattle and their thousands of pounds of hoof power? Thus eliminating much of the need for chemical control? Would our plots be then even more productive?
Yes, we can probably draw some basic and general inferences to all of this, but we also have to be careful, because there are also some specific attributes to specific plants that we want to grow in our plots where we would have a hard time applying many of these principals.
For instance, I've never seen wild chicory on my place, and I really want to grow chicory. Even if I did have wild chicory, it wouldn't have the attributes that I desire most in chicory. So, what I plant will suit me (and the deer) for my food plotting purposes, but everything we have noted relative to the ecotype clover will not apply to chicory. The same will be true in other plants we may desire (such as your alfalfa, dogghr).
Very few plants will take mowing like clover (as can be attested by folks who mow yards), The relentless tramping of herds of mammalian herbivores may interrupt and even modify the successional chain, but it may not make the changes that are conducive to our goals and desires.
We hear the old expression, "...one day at a time...." For me it becomes one habitat job at a time and doing my best to understand how nature can help (or hurt) my actions. And, sometimes it will be wise to modify the goal if that action makes nature a partner rather than a combatant.
It all depends on what you want, what you are willing to accept, how hard you are willing to work, and how much money you are willing to spend!