Ha! I will be your bud... for now!
Look I am not spinning, but it does seem like:
1. Every response seems to be an authoritative "That is HOW IT MUST BE done" type response in the archery world.
2. Every aspect of the bow, and arrow is all - what works works. Which kind of means (1) is BS and really I should just do WTF I wanna do.
(2) said (in kindness of being clear, not anger) then how does anyone really know how to set up a bow or if a bow is set up properly.
Your analogy to the gun world is spot on and cogent to my consternation... Once I set my gun up right - and there are pretty clear rules on how to do that (not a lot of "what does your gun want")... I can nail my bullet/load down to a "T". That seems totally absent in the bow world.
For the bow world it is... no rules just how does your bow feel and shoot for setting up a bow... then you turn to the arrow and its "how does the arrow feel and shoot". Which basically can be summarized as total trial and error and there are no rules or true guidance.
But I totally get what you are saying. And thank you for letting that genie out of the bottle. I was applying the wrong set of thinking to archery.
I must be a shaman and not an engineer