I'm 6'1" and at 210 lbs have trouble generating the kind of power necessary to get up anything over 10% while spinning so I took to mashing larger gears.
Now I pretty much stand until I have to sit, try and recover as best I can and then it's back to standing.
For whatever reason I found that I could get up and concentrate on lifting the back side of my pedal stroke allowing my body mass to work naturally on the down stroke and even though the theory might not suit everyone, I could maintain a somewhat steadier cadence and noticeably lower heart rate at (for example) 39/17 than I could sitting and trying to spin a higher cadence at 39/21.
I'm remembering back to grades around 6-8%. On steep stuff I was forced out of the saddle because of my ability and usually had smaller guys dropping me. But, when courses suited that style of riding I was sometimes able to take a bit out of more talented riders in lesser climbs and foothills. That gave me a chance to help my team out and [hopefully] recover in time to do some work heading to the finish.
I always felt that most tactical training was geared to guys with innate talent and didn't seek enough ways to exploit riders with less obvious skills that could aid the team. But, in every way, I loved every mile I logged, hurting or not.