Well, I never leave well-enough alone: when I get a new figure, first thing I do is go into the shader and study it and then re-create (reverse-engineer?) it in Python which then gets compiled into material files using Matmatic. Doesn't really take all that long, seriously. And then the shader is right. {ducking and running}

I'm just looking at doing collections as opposed to using VSS, but VSS does make distributing mt5 info out on to your multi-matzone figure quite easy. What I like about collections is: you create an mt6, which can then be applied to a figure all one go. However, your code needs to include all the zones, so whether it is faster is hugely debatable.

Which doesn't really answer your question, does it... but it is an option.

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