This is the difficult bit, when starting out from nothing, or even from a few years darktable use and a science background. And I fear to some extent we’re back to gurus, or at least someone who can lay out the learning path, and this was the one of the motivations behind the thread I raised (Image Processing – Recommended Reading).
You’ve done more than anyone else to try to help us get our heads around this but most (certainly beginners) would have trouble separating the intelligent and useful content you’ve generated from the “BS” that’s also out there. Personally as I’m learning more I’m starting to put together my own documentation (which may end up being something I can share with the community) but as you suggest it needs to be pretty comprehensive and every time I think about it, it grows some more.