Trick is to start contributing to Blender and get discount on ticket

I don't think you're directionally challenged, I think it's bad level design.

Once you grasp the concept that you can randomize or map ANY socket, the whole thing clicks and becomes easier (and node trees become smaller too)

Noise alone doesn't look good enough, but you can use more interesting procedural textures as radius masks, OR use grunge mask images.

You can even mix grunge masks to get more interesting effects, like wear + scratches

I think most differences come from edge case handling. Biggest difficulty in developing edit mode operators is that. Lot of things need to happen differently based on topology, selection, neighbors of selection and etc. They're both good for different edge cases.

Problem is even before going to cinema you already know whats showing. You know what record stores have. There is no discovery anymore. My friends & I often reminisce about randomly watching film on TV after missing title & not knowing what it was. Now you'll just look at TV & it'll tell you name.

The short film is called Elene Dariani, if it catches your eye at some festivals go see it.

Can't edit posts on BlueSky either, not a great start :|