Yes - very much this.
However, even with only one variable - the brace shaving - I have come to the conclusion that the only way to know how far to go when shaving off wood from the braces when tap tuning is to make a number of guitars (and each would need to be made to completion) and each one shaving more and more mass off the braces until you go too far...and then just edge it back a bit. Trouble is, for most of us that would take most of us a lifetime and fortune... And then your offspring could maybe try the same thing with a different bracing pattern
Like a lot of stuff, someone many decades ago stumbled across a combination of brace arrangement, size, timber and likewise top thickness and material that happened to work well and it became a lot easier to just use the same materials and design than try all the permutations and combinations for something that works better. Even Taylor took over 40 years to venture into a variation away from Martin's mid-1800's 'X brace'...