Hemituna
I don't think a lot of tuners get the NN's real purpose.
Lets say you hold the engine at 2000rpm and 80kpa of manifold pressure.
Adjust relevant cell in VE table to get AF where you want it. Now advance the cam 5 degs, VE will probably need a trim
to correct AF, now retard cam 12 degs, will probably need another trim. Not to mention that to maintain that manifold pressure
the TB will probably have to move. Now throw emission requirements into the mix where you need to swing the cam 40 degs or more
and you can see that the old VE table with one fuel value ain't gonna cut it anymore, the CL will be chasing its tail constantly.
So the NN is just a different way of calculating how much fuel to put into the engine.
Probably doesn't even use the VE table as it is fairly ugly looking stock.
There are plenty of other tables that are bypassed until you turn the NN off so why not the VE table too.
Also don't think for a second that any of the NN stuff is for maximum performance. It is for maximum emissions performance.
So the engineers can swing the cam around whenever and wherever they like to get the emissions where they need to be and the fueling will
stay correct. That is the purpose. The cam timing they use, does P/T performance no favours.
That is why most modern engines are quite lame down low despite running high comp ratios.
Most all manufacturers go about complying with emissions in similar fashion.
If you retune cam timing with performance as the main focus, it moves around much, much less...
And so then also simplifies the engines fuel requirements.