Hi Ben.

Perhaps I’m misunderstanding what you mean by this:

“...Boric acid is -- functionally -- a more concentrated form of borax, but is never (to the best of my knowledge) used in pools....”

but I thought using boric acid was an easier way to add borates to a pool since it doesn’t require the addition of acid (MA) like borax?

I’ve been using boric acid for years in my pool (30-50ppm). I could have sworn I learned about it here.