For every actions there will be an ideal control pivot to animate with. This is similar to Rotation Orders and there is no one magic solution or setup. Also you cannot expect the rig or rigger to supply you with every variation of pivot control you think you need.
Above is some of my quad animation from ‘Charlotte’s Web’ where I had to animate all kinds of rolls, kicks and turns. My head was turned inside out eye balling and counter translating rotations. Dealing with rotation gimbals was a nightmare too. This was before I knew about Baking and Constraining & World Space Animating to adjust my animation setups on the fly.
Examples to come.