I agree with you..My play for the dividends will only work for special situations...IE..I buy in a IRA account..no taxes other than the 15% withholding from Canada...and I get multiple dividends per month.....even with the ex-dividend drop in the share price it has been working as the oils have been so strong....If you look at the monthly price movements of the stocks....I use PVX, PGH, ERF,PWE monthly then at the quarters I sometimes can add COS ....you will see a monthly pattern where the price drops after the ex-dividend date and then climbs to the day before the ex-dividend date of the following month....by playing this monthly trend with a little variation you can make some cash. ( I have to stick to the US traded stocks so I can get in and out when I want to quickly)

Besides this game I play the underlying stocks(as you have said) are a great place to be invested .  Not sure what will happen when they have to convert to corporations ( share price) as I remain a little unclear what the government really will call for....they have changed a few things as we go along.