getting "made"
I am not sure all of that is true. IE I don't believe you are "made" when the PCs recognize your betting pattern. I believe that is what gets them to looking at you. The thing that raises the biggest flag is big bet spreads that coincide with a TC change.
But, even that isn't enough. For example, I was on the MS coast about a month ago playing at the Beau. Had a player that was either an alcoholic, or a good actor playing at 3rd base. He often would increase his bet as I increased mine, but he also played horribly, and using a TC modified basic strategy could not nearly cover some of his gross play errors. I attracted a little heat that night, he attracted none. I can recall the pit boss coming over when the dealer announced "doubling on a hard 12" when he did that against a dealer up card of 9. Pit boss came over, watched a couple of hands, left shaking his head.
I've never been one to make outrageously stupid plays to avoid heat, as you can easily avoid profit as well. :) There is also an art to picking the right table, so that there are always one or two that will stand out and attract some kind of attention, leaving you in the shadows to ply your trade. Same trip, but at the Imperial Palace, was at a full table with some guy that really was one of the better BS players I encountered (it is amazing how few good BS players I see, much less how many I can make as a counter. I might see one or two per night of playing as I wander around looking for an open spot or playing with them.) But back to the story, this guy was pretty good at BS, and he varied his bets quite a bit (but not anywhere related to the HiLo true count). However he was one of those "loud ones" that was willing to give advice to everyone, and he had the most annoying trait of whenever he wanted a "10" such as when doubling with a 11 showing, or on the second dealt card with an A showing, he would scream "MONKEY!!!" apparently using "monkey" to mean "make this a 10".
This was a 6d game, I spread my bets from 1-12, and was never looked at twice even though I played for 3+ hours there, and even had my son in the seat next to me playing (he is not a counter, but the rascal knows that when I have a big bet out, the count is good and he will likely increase his bet significantly. This is usually asking for trouble when two of you are obviously related, talking a lot, and winning as well. But the "monkey guy" apparently attracted all the attention with his antics which was fine by me.
So it doesn't seem to be any one thing that attracts heat (for me at least) more than the bet spread. I've had dealers tell me as I get up to leave "I didn't see you make one wrong play according to 'the card'" yet that didn't attract any unnecessary attention while playing. I will add that I do _not_ go from 1 unit to 12 units at one time, I'd just as soon shout "counter over here, could I have some heat please?"
I'd say that 95% of the dealers don't even know what basic strategy is except for stiff hands vs dealer 2-6, and the usual splits (8-A seems to be well-known but the rest seem to be treated pretty ad-hoc by everyone and very few get 'em right) and double cases. They know how to accept surrender but many don't understand why anyone would choose to white-flag a bad hand any more than they understand what insurance is all about. As a result, dealers really are not going to notice your playing as to how you handle 16 vs 10 or 12 vs 6, usually, but they apparently are taught to notice significant betting fluctuations, and then either a pit critter or the "eye" will do the rest.
