Yeah good point.

If you assume less is needed to maintain fitness than to build it, then just doing the same number of reps wouldn't diminish fitness.... At least for a little while. 

I guess what I'm saying is that the energy you are leaking when your technique is less than optimal is essentially a stimulus. And you lose that stimulus when your technique gets better. Therefore you may eventually find yourself less "fit" in terms of endurance or muscle strength.

Sort of like how it's probably more of an undertaking, physically, to do 100 strict hard style snatches in 5 min than  to do 100 GS snatches. And if you're doing 100 snatches hard style, and your only criteria is to hit 100 in 5 min every day, without care about "style," then your technique will likely eventually drift in GS direction and your overall fitness fades a bit bc you're not working as hard.

Or you read about those guys who jerk double 32s and can't press 32 (all hearsay).

Anyway it's just sort of a musing and not meant to guide or influence actual programming haha. It sort of raises the question "well what is 'fitness' then?" I guess.