See Holub's column "Requirements Gathering" [Requirements Gathering ] for the goods on what is actually useful and what isn't so useful in this activity we call "Requirements Gathering".
I have to applaud the notion that "focus on the minutiae" misses the whole point. A clear problem statement is perhaps more important that anything else, and the "requirements" are often negotiable, depending on the problem and the nature of the solution.
In "Analysis Without Running Aground" I tried to capture this sense of define the problem first. I've got many war stories on this subject. Over the next month or so, I hope to get many of these off my chest in into this Blog.
Having Holub's clearly-stated version of my opinion is a real help.