No. I think of it as the relationship between a cellphone and an electrical socket. The cellphone battery can power the phone's capabilities without constantly being plugged into a wall for a time, but when the battery is drained, you would need to reconnect to a major or alternative power source to replenish it.

Thus I think the standing flows were not only discretely used for certain feats, but were used on a macro level to provide power to the technology.

So certain technology would gradually start to fade out of existence as ways to recharge the power or provide another necessary element were phased out.

A good example would be how quickly wireless and cable technology would be rendered useless if all of the satellites and satellite dishes were rendered inoperable by sunspots or etc.

This may be why certain ter'angreal exist but have no real function without a larger network. What use is a cellphone that can turn on and initiate calls if the connection to another phone is never or cannot be completed? It becomes a curio that ends up being discarded.