I agree that the San Fran Lager strain is a good choice for "basement" brewers (and I do not want that to sound insulting). I actually replied to a thread that someone started a while ago questioning what to do because their 60 degree basement was too cold for ales to not fall out of solution as fermentation stalled, but was too warm for a lager yeast that was prone to off flavors around 60F. My reply was to try the WLP810 (SF Lager).
But a point is being missed here. Don't confuse brewing to style with making beer. Hybrid beers, like Cal Common, Kolsch, Alt Beers, (and to some degree Bavarian Weizens) are styles that were born from brewing conditions. The key word there is "styles". They are beers with specific strains, and need to be fermented with those strains to acheive characters appropriate for their style.
So if you are just fermenting in your basement, I think it is a great choice to make beer styles appropriate to those basement conditions. You, like the brewers who originated those styles, are making your beers match your conditions. That is brewing to style. On the other hand, you can match your yeast to your conditions, but if the recipe is not appropriate to the yeast, you are "making beer", not "brewing to style".
There is nothing wrong with making beer. I know many people make quick Octoberfest's with ale strains (there is a popular recipe around here), but it is really not an Octoberfest if it is not a lager. It will look similar, and will taste good, but as another member mentioned, in competiton, it would show its style inaccuracy as compared to correctly fermented O-fests.
So IMO, that is why you can't just pick a strain and call it a catch-all. That strategy is fine if you can not manipulate the fermentation conditions, but still want to make beer, but you can't pick a catch-all yeast and claim it is suitable for all styles.