[extremelearning]

I pondered this issue for what seemed like an inordinate amount of time namely: on how to describe this subtle but key difference.

Unfortunately, I couldn't find a nice way, so i glossed over this point, which you correctly say makes many expressions and theorems cleaner and more elegant.

Furthermore, this difference helps explains why q^2 is a natural choice, which some other readers on this thread have enquired about.