True, my thoughts are people are overthinking things quite a lot.I’ve shaved with “hard water” for more than 50 years. I wouldn’t know of the difference soft water makes, if any. I don’t overthink it. Lather obsession is yet another annoyance.
Slickness is what you’re looking for in lather. Billowing clouds of whipped cream is not. So long as you’re making slick lather you’re doing fine. Then again, I don’t have a YouTube channel.
I load my brush, ad some water and straight to the face. Works everywhere I do it and have never had a problem with lather.
Maybe I'm just lucky.