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After 15min of thinking, I think I have found the flaw. It takes exactly the same amount of work to go a given distance (Work = force x distance), so it's more about getting the most work from the engine on the least amount of fuel. That's where DWL comes in, if you drive over a 2 mile distance up hill at 60mph getting 15mpg, you're going to be worse off than driving at 30mph at 25mpg.
As I'm poor and can't afford a scangauge (or even use it in the car I normally drive), I DWL based on throttle position. I find that on a moderately steep incline, my car moves with the least amount of throttle at 2000-3000rpm, anything much over that and you are pressing really hard, anything under that you are flooring it only to slow down. I say "much over" because 2nd to 3rd in my car is a big jump, and changing up before about 3200rpm puts me in slowing down with my foot to the floor mode.
alvaro84, to hold a brake is zero energy, but not zero force. I think the best example is an electric motor, as you can get them to apply enough force that you don't roll back, while not so much that you go forwards.
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