Oh hi Nat, nice to see you here
Did you finish your studies? Or just decided to go full time regardless? Nice graph on your 2+2 blog, good job!
Regarding solver grind vs understanding how the game works - I guess it's both. I was reluctant towards solvers for quite a long time (and was having decent results back then), but now running Pokerninjas.org I did put tons of hours in solvers just to put the maximum value/hour spent into my players. And it brought my understanding of game into slightly upper levels I guess. But I believe that my experience is still crucial to beat new PLO variants. So there's that
GL u all, good to see you here!
B