The pitch elbow orientation is not a theory, but an anatomical necessity, and it doesn't only apply to Hogan. It applies to all swingers.
Here is a simple experiment. Place your palms together in front of your body in the "clap hands" position. Then clap with only your right hand. To get your right palm to hit your left palm square, you have to move your right elbow in a particular way (pitch elbow and not push elbow orientation). During the clap hand backsroke movement, the right forearm fans out due to external rotation of the right upper arm at the shoulder joint (and not due to any forearm rotation) while the right elbow moves in a pitching fashion. Then during the forward stroke, the process is reversed so that the right palm hits the left palm square. If the right elbow is allowed to jut out backwards into a push position, then it is impossible to get the right forearm to paddlewheel into slap-impact so that the right palm is perfectly parallel to the left palm at slap-impact.
Another experiment with a hammer. Stand opposite a doorway and imagine that you are trying to hammer a nail horizontally into the doorjam at mid-thigh level. It is only possible to get the hammer to hit the nail squarely if the right elbow moves into a pitch elbow position. If the right elbow folllows the hands - with the right elbow in a push position - then it is impossible to hit the nail squarely. The hammer will approach the nail from an out-to-in direction, instead of an in-to-square direction.
Tiger Woods, Jim Furyk and David Toms have very different backswing movements, but all three golfers have the same right elbow pitch position during the downswing - which allows their right forearm to paddlewheel into impact so that the right forearm is directly behind the shaft at impact with their right palm squarely facing the target.
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