I understand the point of incrementalisim, and politically "playing it safe" to advance the ball, rather than hail-Mary passes that risk you losing altogether. I've had
vicious debates over it in trying to get CCW passed here in WI against absolutists who wanted to demand WI going straight to "Vermont Carry". Claiming that our attempts to push shall-issue CCW were back-door gun registration schemes etc.
When of course the reality was, shall-issue CCW has been a hard enough fight as-is in WI, and Vermont permit-less carry or "constitutional carry" as some call it wasn't even up for a vote. There wasn't even a bill...
(Monkeyleg had it even worse, getting editorial cartoons of himself drawn by "hard core" gun rights advocates over this issue. We both believe they have other motivations, but that's besides the point here...)
Getting sure-bet moderate Republicans elected from the "purple states" or even blue ones to gain control of a House or senate has it's upsides, they'll get the speaker or president of the Senate elected, the GOP will control all the committees, etc. write the rules for the house.
However, OTOH, if after we get all that "control", and the RINO sells out on key votes for tax relief, gun control, illegal immigration... whatever it may be,
what was the point?
That's the problem with using moderate/RINO's to gain control of the legislative branch. You get the control, but it's worthless because you get betrayed on the key votes.