Yes, there are too many people who think cannabis is some sort of "Princess Perfect" delicate fern type of plant that can not be grown unless everything is micro-managed to the nth degree and EVERY parameter is 100% exactly spot on.
For the average home cultivator, it really does not matter if their pH is 6.8 instead of 6 point whatever, their humidity is 45% instead of 55% etc etc.
This constant desire to have everything perfect environmentally and the disdain for growers that are not following the golden rules is astounding.
Cannabis has survived outdoors and without human interference for Millenia and in less than ideal conditions.
Granted, we all want to grow nice buds, but the intense fever for getting everything "on point" is detracting from the real things.........being self sufficient and getting the pleasure out of "I grew this myself"........and who really cares if the buds have 21.3% THC instead of 21.5% THC??
I have grown for a long, long time now and went through a phase of trying to get everything exact. What I discovered was I was doing my head in and fiddling constantly for no real benefit. These days I tend to follow a few priciples, then basically leave the plants to do their own thing. Daily effing around with pH, temps, intricate fertilizer formulas and constantly trying latest ghetto science did nothing noticable to actually make a huge difference.
After all this time, I figured out all you need is good light, excellent genetics, free draining soil, a balanced diet, an understanding of watering needs and the plants will do the rest.
The plants will not care if the temps vary one degree, the water was a tiny bit more alkaline today vs three days ago, the "vpd" was X instead of Y.
All of these self imposed demands just scare new growers away from the enjoyment of watching something wonderful happen.
No one will be a Zen Master in the first few years, if ever, knowledge takes years of trial and error.
Like you said, in the old days, we just planted random seeds in normal soil, fed them pretty well anything and left them to do their thing and got results that were more often than not very pleasing.
In all honesty, the K.I.S.S. principle is the best principle..........but people by their nature are competitive and think that if their OCD with growing is better than the other persons OCD, they will get better buds.............but do they really??