[baobabKoodaa]

> after standardization there's very little room to "develop the algorithms" because nonconformant implementations would be useless.

there is A LOT OF ROOM to develop the algorithms. it seems that you are confused about what an algorithm is, since you seemingly think that there can be only 1 algorithm that can decode a given media file.

[HelloNurse]

There is a lot of room to do exactly the same thing more efficiently, which doesn't count as different algorithms.

[questionableans]

Are bubble sort and quick sort the same algorithm?

[baobabKoodaa]

Go take an algorithms 101 class. That's literally all it is: learning how to write different algorithms to do the same thing more efficiently.

[burnte]

But they COULD be entirely different algorithms. And frankly, even if they're only 20% different, that's still different.

An algorithm is a sequence of steps and logic. You can create many different sequences to still get the same result.