I am going to say this, there are some people that claim their corals do well at 7.8 pH with low lights and there are some that have the opposite with the same corals 8.4 and high intensity. Why do they thrive? I know I have not been back in the seat long but it seems like consistency seems to be the key. These are living creatures and like all creatures they adapt. I’m not saying that what you are doing is right or wrong, but it is working for you. If it doesn’t turn out well, then you learned something in the process. I’m sure there was someone out there in the past that said “Hey that fish is really cool I want to put it in a tank and show it off.” It struggled and they learned a bunch maybe had some failures, but they tried again, and again. Now they are breeding those finicky fish in their tanks. I wish you the best of luck.