Unlike many here, I did not begin with black and white photography, but will color printmaking; and it is as an adjunct to that I learned tight process control of black and white sheet films, densitometer plots n' all. That coincided with the Cibachrome revolution itself, and its need for serious supplementary masking contrast and color balance controls.
Nearly all the extant literature revolved around SuperXX, along with Pan Masking film and Ortho Litho in relation to dye transfer printing. Well, dye transfer dyes bleed a little, so somewhat disguise the graininess of Super-XX; but Ciba was an incredibly crisp medium. Meantime, Kodak was beginning to give mixed signals about their commitment to dye transfer and those films particularly related to it. Parallel to that, they were formulating a whole new generation of films centered around TMax, not only in relation to general photography, but also industrial usage and even astronomical plates. That made a lot of sense going forward, but also brought the necessity of a whole new learning curve.
Meanwhile, once I had some momentum going in my color printing success, it brought me into interaction with dye transfer printers and their own knowledge base, and that whole generation who prized the old classic films like Super XX for their special qualities in general. I had an itch to experiment with them in the context of black and white printmaking too, but at the time, was only shooting 4x5, not yet 8X10; and Super-XX was just too grainy for my taste.
TMax 400 came to the rescue, although it didn't yet have the smooth evenly dispersed grain of the present TMY400 product, but was still a big improvement in look. FP4 served as my medium speed film, but was frustrating when deep deep shadow gradation was desired, along with specular highlight detail. And VC papers weren't impressive yet. I did a lot of shooting up in the mountains above timberline. But my background in fine-tuning various films for sake of technical applications in color printing was invaluable. I understood how curves work, and how to choose and control them. So to me, seeming subtleties in distinction between "straight line", medium toe, and long toe films, are not inconsequential, but critical aspects of choosing an appropriate film to begin with. It does make a difference. But alas, Super-XX did not survive the TMax asteroid strike, and was given a blow which soon proved fatal. And with Bergger 200 now gone too, it's kinda the end of an era. TMax has won.