TK - I just reread Sklansky's Tournament Poker for Advanced Players and I think he would fully approve of your play of the AK. He specifically talks about AK in a No Limit tournament.
pg. 116 ". . .if you get all-in with it (AK) before the flop, you are almost never in bad shape."
He goes on to state 3 reasons to be all-in preflop.
1. It will sometimes be the best hand unimproved.
2. Most of the time when it wins, it is with one pair - a tricky hand to play in NL.
3. A large percentage of the time that AK wins a showdown will be when it catches an Ace or King on 4th or 5th street. If you aren't all-in you often aren't there to catch it.

He does go on to point out it is a lot better to be the bettor when you go all-in and not the caller.

I'm not good enough to argue with Sklansy - I think I'll start to use TK's strategy.

I'm still more convinced than ever now...good TJ or Dan H. style of play will put you in the money more consistently...and still agree with the AA or KK play...and the AK play when the blinds are getting high.
These hail mary players, there's so many of them in big tournies, just by their sheer numbers will put several of them in the money...but i'd bet you won't see them there consistently...like you will TJ or Dan players.
2 nights ago i played in a multi...599 players, playing my usual game, didn't get unlucky, only once got lucky...after 4 hours 15 minutes, it was down to the 7 of us...i was in 4th place with 84,000 chips...then holy cheesecake palomino! for the first time ever, my computer got disconnected...i thought it was UB's fault, so sat there like an idiot waiting for it to come back up....didn't think of rebooting, since i'd never had this experience( plus was concerned that somehow i'd get kicked out and not be able to get back in) ...FINALLY it occurred to me, duh, and i rebooted the whole thing
...blinds were 4000/8000 when it went down, when i came back, i'd been blinded out and there were 3 left at the table....i came in 6th. YOW! Glad to get 6th though, nice ROI there.