Van Aanholt wasn't an experiment, it was necessity. You're advocating putting defenders in the first team just for the sake of it. Not quite madness, but you can understand why CH didn't do it often.
Except there's very little point to playing Nolan there. Stoke at home was a perfect example of why we should only play that way against teams capable of breaking us down.
Nolan is by far the best finisher at the club, but we won't get to see that if a CB is actively marking him.