Recently went from stuck at late 800's-900's for nearly a year to 1100 pretty quickly. Here's how

Don't worry too much about tactics, thinking up a strategy, or trying to remember and apply theory, none of that. And don't get fancy or complex with your moves either. Here's what you do: improve your board vision and just simply make the effort to be aware of all possible moves your opponent can make. If your opponent moves a knight or bishop or pawn to a spot that you didn't see until it happened, then you aren't paying enough attention. This will take practice, but just simply knowing all possible moves next turn or two will have a vast improvement on your play. You will begin to naturally make less bad blunders, and naturally start spotting opportunities when your opponent makes a mistake, and your overall play will naturally improve. 

Another thing to be a aware of is to keep a mental note of all undefended pieces on both sides. And well that's it. I think once you get a handle on this aspect of chess, then start focusing on tactics and maybe theory. I myself still haven't been able to spot every move, but my improvement in this area or board vision has had the biggest and fastest impact on my play. 

That actually makes some sense.

Totally agree. Better than memorizing openings.

Note that "improve your board vision and just simply make the effort to be aware of all possible moves your opponent can make" is already tactical evaluation. Not fancy or complex though, I'd agree.

So I'd say your recommendation is not to not worry about tactics, but instead the contrary, just making sure not to skip the very basics. If you want to develop these basic skills, tactical puzzles are still the way to go. A puzzle requiring you just to take a hanging piece is still a tactical puzzle.