Yeah, I noticed that most physical therapists seem to advocate doing them with basic resistance bands (of course, this is all based on what I see watching YouTube videos, LOL).
I actually had an appointment a couple months ago with a local orthopedic surgeon who specializes in shoulders, and he actually said that, even though labrum tears won't heal on their own (the labrum is basically the cartilage on the outside of the rotator cuff), the vast majority of patients find adequate relief through a physical therapy regimen. Conversely, he said that even patients whose tears are too severe to be "fixed" through PT find that surgery doesn't have that high of a success rate. So you could say it's a case of being stuck between a rock and a hard place.
From talking with the doctor, it seems like the primary objective of doing the physical therapy exercises is to build-up the muscles in the shoulder (as you mentioned in your post above) so that they can take weight being pulled/lifted off the labrum (I.e., utilize the shoulder muscles to play the role of the labrum).
So that's the problem -- it probably isn't something that can ever actually be healed; instead, it seems like my only options are to either continue my home-brewed PT program or risk getting surgery that may or may not end up making a positive difference.
Either way, I guess it won't hurt to do some research on M1,4ADD. If there are any other steroids that may help heal my labrums AND help me build muscle, I'm definitely open to considering almost anything at this point.