> 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.(posted 8277 days ago)Bob, I think you've summed up the whole thing. While different developers do give different results, for the most part those differences are rather subtle aside from "wild" excursionns such as low-dilution Rodinal or straight D-25; they're just slightly different ways of achieving essentially the same thing.
I do, however, like to fiddle around with different developers but the reality is that it's something interesting to do when I don't have "real" photography to do and I know there's nothing better than intimate familiarity with one combination.