If you burn a book, have you destroyed that book? On the one hand you've just changed its material form into smoke and ash, on the other the concept of the book continues, its ideas and words unaffected by what happened to the physical copy.
So for example in the EWF Orlanth and Aroka, the part of Orlanth tearing Aroka's jaws assunder is no doubt symbolic of something else. That a dragon let itself be changed in this way as part of enlightening Orlanth is just incidental. Or something like that. For that matter the dragon may have been a result of him denying some part of himself--kind of a Loksalm/Kingdon of war analog. So really the quest is about him destroying his own internal walls and prejudices until he can embrace "Heler"--maybe representing his changeable, mutable, adaptable side. So the quest remains no less central to the culture, but it becomes what you do to help open your mind. In the process you are apt to gain power of some sort or other, or at least potential for power.
As for straight out winning battles, if you don't want to use your new draconic knowledge and want to rely on old fashion HQ backed power, I'm sure that there are plenty of myths of the dragons defeating others before Vadrus and Orlanth defeated them--and since the dragon-killer sub-cult was not current at the time, no doubt those were just as effective as sources of power as the dragon-killing versions.
Regards;
--Bryan
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