Quote - you have a new raytracer then you dont need anymore '' specular'' and ''blinn''. with a raytracer you only need ''reflection''. so insted of 3 different nodes you would only have 1 node. it would look visual the same.

The raytracer and the nodes are two different subjects, both involving realism and speed.

The nodes, much better, the property of the material defines how the material reacts to illumination that receives.

The raytracer or any other method deals on how the lights and light sources interact with the scene, the lights that reach each point of the material and what reaches the eye or camera.

You need both, you can have an excellent raytracer, but if the shader you use fails to emulate the optical properties of the material you use the result will be bad. You can have a very correct brdf of the material, but your raytracer fails to reproduce the shadows and illumination produced by the reflections of other elements of the scene, the result also will not be good.

Stupidity also evolves!