I think there is quite a difference between wine kits and from grapes. I maintain that wine kits don't have gross lees, at least not like fresh. I wouldn't leave fresh grapes on the gross lees for over a day or four (short term) but wine kits, sure I have left them after finishing fermentation for to to for weeks with no adverse tastes.
I was originally taught to get wine off the gross lees ASAP. I was also taught to rack every 3 months during bulk aging to get the wine off the fine less, even if there was no fine lees.
Researching "sur lie" and "battonage" convinced me that racking off the fine lees is unnecessary.
The one thing that convinced me that getting wine off gross lees was not critical is the existence of EM. That technique has been used in Burgundy for decades, so it obviously works. However, the original lesson was deeply engrained, and I had to read half a dozen accounts of EM to convince myself it was ok.
We should consider that EM changes the aroma and flavor of the wine, so use of EM is not something everyone may choose to do, and the duration matters. In recent years, when I do kits I do the FWK 14 day ferment, primarily because it eliminates a racking. I rack into a carboy and it stays there for 3 to 9 months for bulk aging.
For grapes, I rack 1 to 3 weeks after pressing. I time this when I'm bottling last year's barrel wine so I cut out an unnecessary racking, e.g., the wine racked off the gross lees goes directly into a barrel, where it rests without racking for a further 12 months.
