Just because something is different doesn't mean it's better.
Back when I was a kid my parents, who considered themselves progressives, had read a new book on child rearing by Dr. Benjamin Spock. In this book the good doctor admonished parents for striking their children out of anger. Instead, he wrote, it's fine to spank your kids, just not when you're mad.
The net result of that advice was that before I was to be beaten with a belt on my bare ass, my father would calm himself in the living room (usually with a glass of bourbon) before administering the punishment. On my side, I would have preferred to just be whacked at the moment the crime was discovered. The torture of waiting for the executioner's steps down the hall towards my bedroom, as I lay on the bed with my pants down, was far more painful than the quick back of the hand I used to get before Dr. Spock.
But here's the thing. That difference was a stepping stone.
Another generation later, when Terri and I were raising our boys, we too were progressives and among the first generation to decide not to beat our children at all.*
*Crazy as it might sound, we were also "progressive" enough to do away with the adage "children should be seen not heard". To this day, it boggles my mind that these views were ever considered radical. We didn't beat our children, we encouraged them to speak up and be heard, and we heaped love and affection on them. Our parents were horrified at this behavior. There were plenty of predictions that our kids would all wind up in either the poor house, jail, or both.
The point of this post is an observation that different, on its own, isn't necessarily better. A stepped attenuator was different than a potentiometer. It sounded better but it was a pain to use. It was a stepping stone to the zero loss volume controls of today.
We need different to step our way to better. Often, with a new product or technology, figuring out where along the path it is can be challenging.
