Alcohol Preps

A few weeks ago, a new colleague of mine and I went on a motorcycle accident. When we arrived, the patient was being held down by about six firefighters and police officers while he struggled and shouted and was generally barely under control. They might have let him up if he hadn't cracked his helmet, been bleeding profusely from his head, and wouldn't believe that he was in an accident despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. My boss came to back us up and was immediately on the phone getting command orders for some sedation. (Yes, don't make fun of our silly state that has to ask for stuff. It happens). And, sadly, we got a (relatively) useless order for 1mg of IM ativan. My partner drew it up, handed it to me, and then as I leaned over to jab it into the patients arm, my partner pushed an alcohol prep in my face. My first reaction was, "Um, what the heck is that?!" as I continued to push the med while my boss was kneeling on the patients arm while trying to get him to stop shouting at us like a maniac. The rest of the story...doesn't really matter. He was eventually tubed, taken to a trauma center and all that good stuff. The thing that I remember about this call, other than artfully dodging flinging blood, is the use of alcohol preps. My new medic partner wanted to prep for the IM, double prep for IV starts, and meticulously wipe Y ports before we pushed drugs. And for some reason, it annoyed me.
On the way back from the call, I apologized to the noob for dismissing his alcohol prep when he handed it to me for the IM injection. It reminded me of me. Way back in the day my preceptor berated me for using two preps to start an IV. "If they need an IV, they need an IV." he said. Despite very dirty arms. He was probably wrong. I was probably wrong by feeling exasperated by the newbies desire to have a clean field for an IM injection. It wasn't wrong. It was impractical. Or was it impractical?
I worry that this post will now deteriorate rather quickly to a pointless monologue about how to balance the classroom and the real world. It is often a dichotomy of what is taught and what is practical, and really, a lot of rules are bent in EMS. Mostly because of the environment in which we work. Like, your house, or the street, or in the woods. But you already know that. Since I have almost zero readers, a hope of some discussion is probably out. So I will bore you with some clarification.
Should we take the time to use two preps on a dirty person who needs and IV? Should we wipe the Y port every time we administer a med? Should we prep the skin on a head injured altered person to give sedation IM? Really? Yes. Practically? I don't know.