Sorry for jumping in on a beach casting thread (boat fisherman here), but surely catching from a beach uses the same theory as catching from a boat.
If there is a somethign of a feature, whether that be a rock, reef, headland, tide rip, sand bar, gulley, mussel bed, etc then it will draw fish to it and act like an oasis.
Whereas fishing clean empty featureless sand is much akin to fishing a desert.
We have all seen the National Geographic programmes of the open sea and life is thin on the ground. When you find it, there may be a small school, but in general all the action focuses around a feature.
Fishing a clean open beach must be much the same.
If you cast short to the scour at the bottom of the tide line then you'll have every chance, if you have the ability to cast long to the reef you know lies at 120 yards then you have every chance, but if you simply sit on an open beach and cast a lead aimlessly then you are working on pure luck?
It's the same on a boat, if I just take my boat straight into Weymouth Bay and drop the anchor I'll catch next to nothing, but by drifting a gravel bank, wreck or a reef I stand every chance of success.
Go snorkelling in the Summer and make a point of snorkelling across a clean open beach to get to a rocky mark and the difference will be amazing.
You'll see virtually nothing over the clean sand, maybe a small school of fry or possibly a solitary flattie. Get to the rocks and all of a sudden there will Pollack in the kelp, Bass hanging back in the distance, a few mullet crusing the surface and wrasse hiding in the crevaces.
Just opinions and views of a boat angler, and not suggesting that any of the contributors (or original author) do simply cast and hope, but I do know that many who view this thread will.
Tom