Seems like every gift exchange has that one person who just grabs whatever's on clearance.

My aunt Brenda did a side by side two Thanksgivings ago, same filling, same oven, just marked the crusts with toothpicks. The all butter one had those little pockets and a real crunch at the edge, and the vodka one was soft all the way through, almost like a shortbread. Half the table picked the butter one without knowing which was which, so it wasn't just her being nice. I did the half and half thing last year and honestly it worked pretty well, you still get some flake but the dough is way less fussy to roll. So no, you are not overthinking it, crust is the whole point of the pie in my book.

Did your mom ever tell you what she actually did with that notebook? My dad had this rule where I had to leave my backpack by the front door every night, and I found out years later he was checking it for notes from school about field trips and permission slips he could not afford. He never said a word, just quietly took care of what he could and let me think he was being annoying about the mess. That notebook of your mom's was probably less about patterns and more about having something to hold onto during those years when you were slowly pulling away.