This is not a situation where my lack of experience or understanding has me spouting nonsense because I've yet to do enough work, this is a situation where I've done enough work to separate out what is actually necessary.

Yes contam is on every surface practically but don't forget this fungus is resistant enough to grow unaided outdoors. I have done g2g transfer in open air with 100% success from brf inoculated using only alcohol sterilized needles. A couple weeks after that I did more g2g transfers in open air from corn to corn again with 100% success rate. I've done this multiple times and spawned to bulk substrate multiple times with successful flushes. I don't think agar work is the pinnacle of mycology and I don't think agar work is difficult but I will do agar work alongside the other experiments in open air and document the results.