Hi IsaoShi, you make me feel less alone - I sense you've gone over this stretch of road yourself, and recognise those potholes in my understanding. Thanks for your insights - they are always most welcome!

There is a Poser group I belong to. The (unwritten, tacit) guiding philosophy of this group is "helping each other helps each of us". It is with this mindset that I come with these questions - annoying as I must seem to Those That Know. I feel if my understanding has gaps, others must be in the same place. And on my blog then, those questions can be addressed.

As to my blog, it's a blow-by-blow. Someone comes along and points out a glaring error, I'll correct the error (with credit given). It doesn't pretend to be an authoritative work on the subject... it's all about sharing.

The thing I love so much about scripting and why I wish more people got into it is: I feel you actually get a much clearer idea - almost like an outline, or dot-point explanation - of what a shader's doing. Even after I've cranked out a fairly elaborate GC shader for some clothing item which incorporates some of the original shader (correcting certain settings), I can go back and remember what it's mean to be doing in the script much easier than looking at a spaghetti-salad of nodes.

Monterey/Mint21.x/Win10 - Blender3.x - PP11.3(cm) - Musescore3.6.2

Wir sind gewohnt, daß die Menschen verhöhnen was sie nicht verstehen
[it is clear that humans have contempt for that which they do not understand] 

Metaphor of Chooks