Why use "deserving of more practice" ? Why not "deserving more practice'/

Question

Context:Unfortunately, decisions about the sequencing of material, typical contexts, and natural discourse are not served as well by intuition and anecdotal evidence as judgments of accuracy are. First, the intuition of even experienced teachers is not consistent. For example, when they rely purely on their intuition, teachers usually disagree over whether simple present tense or present progressive is more common in typical conversations and therefore deserving of more practice.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

'Deserving more practice', an absolute clause, does not fit the grammar of the sentence, while 'deserving of more practice' (a predicate adjective + complement) does: '...whether present simple or progressive is...therefore deserving of...'

Avangi · Answer

NL888Why use "deserving of more practice" ? Why not "deserving more practice'/

Because of the "is."

We can say, "It is more common in typical conversations and therefore [it] deserves more practice."

The original is, "It is more common in typical conversations and therefore [it is] deserving of more practice."

You can put it in the past tense: "It was more common in typical conversations and therefore [was] deserving of more practice."

The "is" and the "was" distribute to both adjectives:
It is common and deserving.
It was common and deserving.

If you don't want this parallel structure, you must add a second verb.
It is common and deserves something.
It was common and deserved something.
"Deserves" and "deserved" are verbs: (simple present and simple past)

I didn't intend to make this so complicated.

If you take away the "of," you're attempting to change "deserving" from an adjective to a verb:
It is common and [is] deserving something. "Is deserving" is now a verb in present continuous tense.
Sure, it's possible. He is ambitious and [is] deserving a raise.
But it's not really natural in this case. We'd use simple present: He deserves a raise. .
(Of course, He is ambitious and [is] deserving of a raise. is also possible -- a little higher register.)

So what's the difference between "It is deserving more practice," and "It is deserving of more practice"?
The first "deserving" is a verb and the second one is an adjective.
The continuous tense gives "deserving" a meaning which the author does not intend.
Why does the "of" make "deserving" an adjective?
I don't have a quick explanation for that, and this danged post is already way too long!

Why use "deserving of more practice" ? Why not "deserving more practice'/

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