At this level, do players usually struggle against gimmicky openings? Yes, especially against higher rated opponents.
Is it then more important to learn antidotes to gimmicks than focus on general principles?
No. I have looked at the games you have played on this site. Some of your opponents use chess engines.
The chess engines that they are using are houdini, rybka, shredder, etc. These engines have playing strengths
of 2300 to 3200. Those ratings are of equal strength or higher than the professional human International Masters, and Grandmasters
There are 2 theories of chess. Classical and Hypermodern. In practice during actual games the theory applied
Is a combination of the 2 theories by players that know both theories.
The general principles you write about in your post are derived from those 2 theories.
If you would like to know more please let me know.
These days it seems all the members are on to these specific move combos - very clever attack lines or whatever. I, thanks to glorious laziness, am persisting with the general principles like control center, back pawn with rook etc etc. result is that while usually I hover in the 1250-1350 bin, I am down below 1100.
At this level, do players usually struggle against gimmicky openings? Is it then more important to learn antidotes to gimmicks than focus on general principles. Almost everyone I've played seems onto some or the other gimmick openings.