With the default build, you get only features that meet all this criteria:
- the big boss wants it (google about colored wireframe for example, but their are others cases like that)
- other devs approve (see fracture modifier, rejected just because it creates many independent parts… like the instance modifier, ask the fracture modifier devs what they thing about the reason they see there code postponed for years.)
- find enough reviewer time (go through the tracker to see how many great patches are taking dust since years, I have 2 of them, which make OpenCL rendering 30% faster open since 4 years iirc)
The course makes the C/C++ patches like addons. You will just have to “install” them from the branches like mantaflow or scrambling, or from the patch tracker like this one for example https://developer.blender.org/D3094 and it will stay on your version. It will only cost a rebuild (5 minutes on windows, 2 minutes on Linux) and maybe some small manual fixes once a month, when someone else modify the same part as one of your patches or a function was renamed internally, all of this is explained in the course.
Other reason why it’s easy for you: because you don’t have to follow strict standard for coding, the only goal is that it works and is stable. The last features I made for cycles was 4 lines big, but it took many weeks of review, one bug hunting and fix, plus a rewrite of another part of the code to get in master… The main devs know what has to be done, just don’t have the time to do it and won’t have it anytime soon with 1300+ bugs opened https://developer.blender.org/maniphest/project/2/type/Bug/ … and it’s only the beginning of the beta phase, most bugs aren’t even discovered.