Big Block Edelbrock limitations.

mostly just bolt ootb stuff together and hope it works ok without really thinking properly of their combo and what works and doesn't

For the most part, that hasn’t changed any in the last 39 years I’ve been messing with these things.

It’s been the same as long as I can remember.
Some people just have a better handle on how to put a combo together and make it work than others.

It’s rarely simply the sum of the pile of parts that makes a car run good.

However, it does seem like once the “car” is pretty well sorted out, you can put a variety of different motors in it and it’ll run a good number.