Majority of people out there doing TaiJi are doing it for the health benefits and moving nice and slowly, exercise etc.
You're not going to change that ...
If interested in expressing the traditional principles - take note of traditional ways of training.
That involves practice of simple short movements from the form
on their own as drills at various speeds, standing practice, expressing power in postures and movements, testing posture, getting used to emitting and receiving power in various two man drills, pushing hands going through to more than the "I give you a litte push and you fall over - else you're fighting me and that's bad", practicing the form at extremely slow speed (takes well over an hour for one of the long forms) etc.
Practicing long enough and hard enough that one is truly comfortable in one's own physical skill. So when someone asks "what is going on - doesn't look like much" a demonstration can be easily given that removes all doubt (say a little itsy bitsy soft tap on the chest ...
)
Particular note needs to be taken of the standing, practising of simple movements on their own, and testing posture. This is the way real root and center is developed. Because one is being tested, and practicing each thing enough over and over again so one really comes to know the movement - the principle.
Oh, and practice for an absolute minimum of 1 hour a day (requirement for developing any sort of skill).
And most important of all ---- find a teacher who can truly express the full art and is passing the full art on. Learn from them their methods of practice and training.
RT
..There is absolutely nothing wrong with the techniques taught in TaiJiQuan, it is just that these techniques are rarely taught, however weird that may sound. But I digress. So I can first hand say that Xing Yi is shorter in the same way that karate is shorter (cuz you learn how to hit things properly 
) though XingYi's road may be long, you can see you are going somewhere right away 
