Yes, it can work under any World Align
Yes, it can work under any World Align workflows as well - as William Faucher's product does (which is a great solution). I recommend against handholding videos for the very reason you mentioned - but technical videos ones like these that explain very clear, usable concepts like these are very useful. Custom materials can work with anything - although with other people's work, it depends on their UVs. I've seen some terrible UV work in the marketplace for performance. But for filmmakers, this shouldn't be as big a problem for you. As for functions, they serve 3 purposes for me: 1.) I can use them globally on the scene (e.g. if I'm doing a rocky beach scene and it is raining, I can use a global material instance to control the rocks all at once instead of worrying about changing 20 different materials.), 2.) It is a cleaner workflow and less confusing, & 3.) I can create master materials much faster with functions.
