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People like to theorycraft, and theorycrafting looks more impressive when calculating burst abilities without worrying about resource management.
Unless your playing a 15 minute adventuring day, most fights your going to spend 1 point to enhance your weapon and, maybe, recover a spell. The resource intensive abilities people go on about will only be used during key fights.
So can someone explain to me as if I'm an idiot why these particular arcana (arcane accuracy, arcane edge, the metamagic arcana, etc) are so highly suggested? Am I not understanding something, or is there a way to manage the resources well?
Pathfinder tactics can be quite subtle, and there are a lot worse resources out there than the poster on this forum who goes by TarkXT. One of the things he does in that article is discuss three phases of combat: the setup, the swing, and the mop-up. Basically, if you can give yourself an overwhelming advantage at the swing, it doesn't take much resources. He specifically singles out "powerful short-term effects" that "will push the swing in your favor."
That's basically what those arcana are. Arcane accuracy means that you will hit your target. If you know what you're doing, the target that you hit is a target of key importance, and you hit it in a way that will disable it -- alternatively, don't waste arcane accuracy if you're just wailing on one orc among many.
Arcane edge lets you impose a powerful and persistent status effect (bleed of 10 points or so) on your target, which is not prevented by DR or many other defenses. Once you've done this, you can basically sit back and watch your opponent bleed out, knowing you've already won the fight.
So, basically, these abilities let a magus "nova" very effectively. You still need to know when you want to nova.
for my Magus, I took enduring blade, got a lesser extend metamagic rod, and used greater magic weapon. Make a +3 for most of the day weapon, and then tune it with bonuses pertinent to the battle at hand for 1min/lvl.
I had arcane accuracy as well, useful for full attacks after you discover the target's AC is just out of range, and used Bladed Dash to spellcombat-movetoflank as needed.
I played through Curse of the Crimson Throne, and while there were some occasions where I nearly exhausted my resources, it kept me viable the majority of the time.
Ok so they are good for Nova but how do you know when to do it?
In-game, that's what knowledge checks are for. That's also where experience and tactical sense play a role. Situational awareness is also helpful.
If you're 10th level and you're up against a monster you recognize as a babau (a CR 6 demon), implicit in that recognition is knowledge of its capacities and that you can probably handle it without nova-ing. If it's a glabrezru (CR 13), you might be in more serious trouble. [Any organization of professional adventurers would have compiled the entire Bestiary series as an actual set of bound volumes on the basis of travellers' tales and research reports; any professional adventurer who valued her life would own a copy and have it memorized.]
If there are four identical monsters led by a different monster who's shouting orders at the other four, which one is the most powerful, and which one do you nova on? Similarly, if you have been fighting your way through relatively mundane rooms like barracks, dining halls, and kitchens, only to find yourself in an extremely lavishly equipped personal suite, there's a good chance that whatever lives in there is the commander of (and more powerful than) the popcorn you've been shredding on the way in.
And, of course, when a monster suddenly paralyzes your fighter and strikes your cleric blind, then you might want to nova just to make sure that you survive the combat.
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OrfamayQuest gave very good advice. Using arcane accuracy and casting shield in the same round would not be the best strategy. Arcane accuracy is best when you are loading up the most minuses, such as using power attack, and wishing to compensate this by giving yourself positive modifiers.
A Magus can do a lot of damage in a ground and when you are loading the big damaging swings, arcane accuracy increases your chance to hit.
As a sidenote, you may not wish to always be power attacking in order to increase accuracy when you're not spell striking with a damaging touch spell.
Arcane accuracy is key when you are attacking with a melee touch spell and spell striking along with your normal full round action of attacks, power attacking, when you are doing a lot of damage in a round.
The maximizing arcana, is a prerequisite for the feat maximizing spell strike. I believe that is what the feat is called. There is synergy between the two; however, maximizing spell strike is a minimum 13th level feat.
Keep in mind when using metamagic rods, you have to have one hand to hold the metamagic rod, another to cast the spell which must be an open hand and third to hold your weapon.
Turning into a four armed monstrosity would accomplish this. Having the Arcana, maximizing or empower, is nice in conjunction with rods, you just have to work with it.