Ichigo is an instinct fighter bleach 533 scans raw and even then he didnt just brute force his way through everything. This is not Naruto where you have Shikamaru type fighters (Tsuki comes close, but simply because his abilities require him to do so) Read through Gins fight with Ichigo, youd understand what i mean by Ichigo having exceptional battle smarts. He did not know how to fight a Menos and that seemed the logical way of killing it, reducing its size.
He utilizes his abilities the best he can, what else do you expect him to do with a Getsuga?
P.S. A Brute force fighter is someone like Unohana and Kenpachi, Ichigo is not. And Ichigo adapts to peoples fighting styles, e.g. Byakuya. And the even against Grimjoww he tried his hardest to utilize what he had, unfortunately it was not enough. Against Ulq, the guy even praised him on how he became a better fighter and his usage of Getsuga, timing etc. The only time Ichigo went Brute was when his hollow took over.
Against Aizen, Ichigo was smart enough to play Aizen at his own game. He perfectly analyzed Aizens mentality and at the end of the battle understood (from my POV) a little bit more about him.
Naruto 630 | Naruto Chapter 630 Spoiler 