Being away from the cannabis community for several years and coming back is, I don't want to use the overused term culture shock, but it is surprising that the trends have changed so much in just a handful of years! Has anyone else experienced this?
I've now learned that pH doesn't matter, everything is light burn and you have to watch out for hot soil ...and baloney to all three


I've already talked about pH above, if you don't adjust it good luck to you, don't care.
Regarding HOT SOIL, I've used nothing but some combination of soil, pro mix & worm castings for a decade, and in my opinion there is no such thing as hot soil, but there are hot clumps in the bag, and they can cause all kinds of issues if directly in contact with a seedling or small clone.
Soil should always be mixed well to break up hot clumps.