Knizia is a mathematician. For anyone who's ever studied game theory, Knizia's designs are usually pretty obviously derivative of "mathematical games" (this isn't a criticism.) Sometimes I think he just whips out his copy of winning ways and riffs on stuff until he finds a design he likes. Or at least that's how it seems to me.
Like another commenter said, I think Knizia definitely falls into the camp of "experimental genius." I think SUSD put it aptly "Reiner Knizia has designed 1000's of games, literally some of which are good."
I wouldn't actually recommend reading them as a solution to your problem, but there is a series of books called Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays that discusses mathematical ways of thinking about playing games well. I've only read the very beginning of it, but I doubt it would be terribly helpful in winning Wingspan.
Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays is a fantastic book to work through. Berlekamp also has a great Dots and Boxes book.
Perfect, thank you!
Surreal numbers was a reader course with a professor. We used ONAG and "Winning Ways for Your Mathematical Plays" by Berlekamp, Conway, and Guy.