Interesting, I read some Sklansky books about 15 years ago and he talked about semibluffs, where you're partly bluffing but you've also got some chance to win. Sounds like strategy has evolved into doing the exact opposite.
At least, that holds if you assume the opponent will always call with hands above a threshold and fold with hands below it. Which is correct play (though kindly ignore raises, for simplicity - but they don't blow up the argument). Only if they behave very strangely, e.g. folding with the very best hands and worst hands but calling with the decent ones, can I see a better connection with semi-bluffing on early streets.