Decoupling Capacitors

Had occasion to read up on the appropriate way to add decoupling capacitance to printed circuit board assemblies, and found a useful explanation.  One conflicting element with what I've heard at work is that the paper mentions that power pins should be connected directly to the power plane via a via (ha!), whereas here we tend to put the cap near the pin connected by a trace which then goes to a via.  Plus our component pads aren't shaped optimally according to the paper.  Why can't it be simple?

Addendum [2015.03.15]: By the way, "Manhattan routing" is routing horizontal traces on one plane, and vertical traces on another.  "Manhattan distance" is the corresponding length of a trace routed this way.