I'm following that other thread on that IDL wall of Bill's and I realised something: my focus is more general than what is being looked at here. I'm looking at alerting people to concepts that are far more basic than when to use an Add vs when to use a Pow... that's further down the pike.

I remember a very interesting discussion on here about what PoserSurface does with Bagginsbill explaining the behaviour of a lot of the channels. I've had brilliant discussions with CobaltDream (very illuminating discussions!) about the process the renderer takes. This is all fundamental stuff anyone going into the material room needs to have a solid grasp of, or bogus shaders will happen.

THAT is what I'm on about. This needs to be absorbed before discussions of maths nodes and texture nodes and all the stuff you can do with them makes any sense. And if I can propose that GC be included in that basic discussion, my work here is done.

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