Rendered bigger and with a little Turbulence bump to reveal differences in how the specular looks. These differences in subtle transition from orange to white are why GC is so precise. HSVETM is a cheap approximation - cheap in the sense that you don't have to bother with incoming color prep.

The HSVETM setup would work much better on the Artistic Lens than GC does, for example, as it works very well on rendered colors AS IS.

If you can put up with the slight difference in specular appearance, it's a good technique that let's you make a few less nodes in your shader. You still have to stop using the built-in specular and diffuse, because you need to post-process the result of adding those together.

Or you can use the lens, and don't change your shaders at all.

For me, the loss of character in the specular is probably a deal breaker. I tossed HSVETM out to you guys because I was investigating what it could do - what are its pros and cons, and I thought it would be good for you to give it a try. Why am I investigating it? Biting my tongue.

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Renderosity forum reply notifications are wonky. If I read a follow-up in a thread, but I don't myself reply, then notifications no longer happen AT ALL on that thread. So if I seem to be ignoring a question, that's why. (Updated September 23, 2019)