Interesting. Also, 8 bits per channel isn't even a natural endpoint. 256 values aren't enough to cover the full range of human perception to any reasonable accu

Interesting. Also, 8 bits per channel isn't even a natural endpoint. 256 values aren't enough to cover the full range of human perception to any reasonable accuracy, which is why 16-bit floating point per channel is now sometimes used to encode HDR. (But to be clear, at current RAM sizes, it wouldn't really matter what the base is.)