Hey, whatever rows your boat. It takes more than one horse to make a race. I don't kick other peoples' dogs or question their methods or aesthetics as a matter of course. Unless I want to learn, of course.
Here's me!
I'm a professional violinist, and have played in 5 large orchestras in my career. I'm now semi-retired, and conduct a large amateur orchestra in BC, where I live in Prince George. I also have 35 violin and piano students. So, to me, sticking with one thing is like saying "I only play or conduct Beethoven. Nothing else." Beethoven is great, perhaps the greatest, but the world of music would be a lot poorer if we couldn't play Bartok, or Brahms, or Bach, or Villa Lobos, or Chopin . . . . "
And thus while I have a specialty, I also include a little variety, in both music and photography. Believe me, we couldn't sell tickets if we played only one composer.
When I worked in a photo lab in the distant past, yes, everything was systemitized and we didn't play with the system. But that's a different story, like a specialist Baroque orchestra. Getting to photography . . .
I use digital in color, but film exclusively in B&W. I don't like the look of conversions, and I love to print. A framed B&W print just does something that digital conversions cannot do.
In 35mm, I'm a half-frame guy. I just got back into film developing and printing after a 15 year hiatus. Things have changed. I'm experimenting to find what out there available creates the "look" I'm after. I use the Olympus Pen FT as my main 35mm camera. I have 5 of them, and a bunch of lenses. I occasionally use my Pentax MX full frame, but if I'm doing more demanding work I usually step up to medium format, where my user is a Mamiya C330. So being a sub-miniature guy, I need the versatility of several emulsions in this small frame world, which is not very forgiving.
I've always had 3 "looks" I liked in half-frame, one for landscapes, one for portraits, and one for "industrial" or street use. My old faves are gone. So experimenting with the new emulsions has been both fun and useful. I usually print 5x7 in this format, but if I need an 8x10 it'll do it with a slower emulsion.
In medium format, I use pretty much only HP5 and HC110, and ditto in large format. It does what I want, and I like the look. If I use something else, I'll have a very specific reason.
So my findings are (after much experimenting), with respect to the "new" stuff:
1) Tri-X is not the same emulsion I remember. Neither is HP5+, but it's very close and I've now adopted it as my #1 B&W film only in full frame, with HC110 at 1:63. This soup seems to be the same old stuff. New Tri-X in Rodinal is a viable foil to HP5, but I've not yet develped my 2 rolls of Fomapan 400 - they're in the tank but I'm waiting for another package of D76 to come in . . . the developer I had mixed up didn't look right and would probably have invalidated my tests.
2) Plus-X is gone. I've adopted FP4 in it's place after trying other medium speed films and not really liking them. I like FP4 in both Rodinal and Xtol. Carefully handled, FP4 makes nice 8x10s in half-frame.
3) I continue to use Ilford XP2 as an all purpose, carry around film. Always liked it's "large format" tonal range in 35mm, and it makes viable 8x10 enlargements if exposed at 200 in my Olympus Pen Fs. In a 5x7 half-frame enlargement, XP2 is versatile. I actually prefer the Kodak equivalent but apparently its gone now, and I can live with XP2 happily.
New films I've adopted I had no knowledge of before:
1) Ilford SFX 200 - without filter in Rodinal and shot on a half-frame Olympus Pen FT, it has a look I like with respect to grain. Red filter and it has other uses. Versatile.
2) Arista 100. Yep. I like it. In Exol it's very classy, not unlike my lost Plus-X. In Rodinal it hits hard and clean on a 5x7 half-frame print.
3) Shanghai in 120. Like it, too. Very much, to my mind, like Arista 100. Use it in my C330 or Minolta Autocord as a slow film.
4) Kodak TMax 100 and 400. Never used these in the past . . . . I personally think they're dazzling. TMax 400 might be my replacement for PlusX, ASA 400 to boot. It makes really beautiful enlargements. TMax 100 might be the finest film I've ever used . . . the 8x10 enlargments I've made from half-frame negs are quite astounding. It's disadvantage is its speed. I'm an available light shooter. Ditto TMax 400 in medium format. Very special quality to the film here.
Still to check out: Delta 3200, Foma 200, Foma 400 (waiting the developer I want to soup it in. It's actually loaded in the tanks!
)
I have high hopes for Foma 400 to replace the old Tri-X look I liked when I'm shooting industrial sites or street scenes. I've also wanted to see what the Adox and Rollei films are like.
After films, I'm going to have to test papers. 
All my old faves (Luminos in X and Gloss, and Kodak Ektalure in G and K) are long gone. I need to have a paper I like to give the Look of my basic unglazed Luminos Gloss. This paper thing is a whole other story!
So, even though I have a standard system, my "enquiring mind wants to know."
