"unlikely to move the needle in the real-world" FIPS does not impinge on me in any way whatsoever - that's my real world and that's the real world for a darn s

"unlikely to move the needle in the real-world" FIPS does not impinge on me in any way whatsoever - that's my real world and that's the real world for a darn sight larger number of people than ... Americans. I note your secret/non secret discussion for RNGs and that seems to be a good idea - many non FIPS standards also have a dichotomy like that or something more complicated. However, separately seeded pools reduces the entropy available (IANACryptographer) that's a trade off of some sort that I'm not qualified to assess. This work is done by people I respect and I will evaluate it according to the standards I have to adhere to. None of those standards is FIPS. I'm not quite in a cargo cult state but I have to take a certain amount of things on trust when it comes to this stuff!