I question whether any serious strategic thinking went into the Maida battle.
I think not. It was just Lets give Johnny Frenchie a bloody nose . . . and
skip off, chortling.

Are you forgetting that Stuart, upon landing in Calabria, issued proclamations for the Calabrians to rise up against the French? Were the English in the practice of issuing proclamations inciting the populace to revolt for giggles? I think you and others are minimizing the incredible change that the arrival of Fox (both the Secretary and the general) made. Stopping Sir Sidney's guerrilla war in Calabria was all about politics; the politics of Pitt vs the politics of Fox.