What you get out of a workshop

I often tell of how as a beginning dancer I only wanted workshop with choreography. Not combos but full out choreography, because then I felt I had something I can use. This is extra funny since I don't think I ever once used one of these choreographies until I pulled out two 4 year old workshop notes recently.
Now I find it is the opposite. Unless I am studying with someone who is truly a master of choreography like Yousry Sharif then I am not interested in it. I want technique, history, methodology, and anything else that will advance my dancing be it improv or choreography.
But then the question becomes, when do we use this? Is it a waste if you spend $200 and two days of your time on a workshop and don't come home dancing like the instructor or growing your own dancing in leaps and bounds.
I think of each class, each workshop, each instructor, and each topic like a drop in a bucket. The bucket is all the things you have at your disposal when you dance. Each workshop may only add one new drop or it may add a spoonful, either way every drop is worth something. As our buckets fill so we grow as dancers, teachers and performers.
I never feel like I need to remember or assimilate everything I learn, just add a few drops here and there. It makes learning more fun and it makes me want to travel around and get splash or new ideas from here, there and everywhere.