Much as I admire "The Negative", it really doesn't go into much detail on developer/film combinations. Adams used HC-110 in various dilutions much of the time and the other developers he mentions are mostly sidenotes. Plus the book was written before many current developers and films were available.(posted 8275 days ago)I'm wondering if many people's "favorite film/developer" combinations aren't simply the result of habit rather than an exhaustive comparison of alternatives. For example, in medium speed film I tend to use HP5+ at EI 200 in HC-110 dilution F, mostly because I tried it and it seemed to work OK. The effort of trying D-76, Microphen, Rodinal, Pyro, DD-X, Xtol and all the other developers on the store shelf just seemed like too much work for a (probably) marginal gain. Add to that the possibilities of Tri-X, Neopan 400, Delta 400, APX 400, TMY etc. and I'd end up spending all my time testing developer/film combinations and never get around to actually taking pictures!
It's probably true that most film/developer combinations give perfectly good results once you've found the right EI and time/temp, and the quest for something better is a close relative to some photographer's quest for the ultimate lens or camera - a distraction from photography itself.