Planks are touted as supporting core and back as well as posture. I completely disagree to that and I doubt they'd do anything.

Just off the cuff, after trying planks and seeing now how easily I can hold 5 minutes, which is considered overkill and in fact experts say 3x 10 seconds is enough. Excuse me but I can't feel anything even after 5 minutes and I feel like I really don't have to stop at 5. So if I can't feel it, what are they doing? And seriously 10 secomds? What are planks good for?

After considering this, I feel that they're a good measurement of core, but would themselves do next to nothing to build core. Apparently my core is solid because of 10 solid years of core training where I never once did a single plank, and now that I see I do more than the vast majority of fitness pros our there doing planks every day for years and still only capable of 30 seconds to a minute, I can surmise that they're pointless other than as a measure of core strength. Do your core exercises: oblique twist, crunch, roman bench, straight arm pull down etc.

I also am reconsidering the hip (glute) raises. I would expect they could improve glutes but I feel nothing. I am struggling to position enough weight to add to the exercise, following the proper form and it's just too easy. The hardest part is safely rolling 90 pounds over my hips and junk to get into position. Isn't it supposed to target glutes? Apparently my glutes are also too good for this even after never doing this exercise in my life until now.

Again in weight training, every exercise has targeted muscle groups and secondary groups. When you move from bar to bells you will definitely get more soreness in your secondary muscles and not be able to do the same weight as with a bar or machine, this is good, working a wider set of muscles won't peek out the primary muscle, but you will be overall more capable.

If you want to look like a TV bodybuilder, take the roids, if you just want to look good and actually be able to lift more in a safe way, then do it right and stop worrying about targeting/maxing one muscle over another. That is not to say you shouldn't target muscles correctly, but you can gain huge benefits with secondary muscles.

Why am I doing this (body wise)
1. To look good
2. To dodge pain (PT)
3. To be stronger and have higher endurance for projects
4. To be able to eat a volume of food I am comfortable with. Even at 6'3 200lbs, the amount of calories I could eat in a day was pittiful to maintain a sedentary lifestyle. Awfully small, unsatisfying, and I had to be obsessively strict over it. I hate it, let me live and I don't care if I have to work out to be able to have that occasional treat and not gain weight.