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Chris, I was doing my due diligence for a project I wanted to do concerning the golden ratio and wanted to provide an example of the golden ratio (or golden spiral) in nature and web page after page gave me "examples" of what I thought I was looking for. Upon closer inspection, it seemed wild conjecture that the spiral used was a golden spiral and was in reality, I thought, just a logarithmic spiral of which there can be many types. I also saw many works of art with golden rectangles all over them showing positions of features. Seeing these, I thought I could take any photo or work of art and go golden rectangle hunting to find these relationships among the features. I thought the whole thing a scam or I was missing some point until I saw your article that expressed my state of mind perfectly.
I do like your inclusive of the fact that the golden ratio does not need any embellishment. I do think the ratio to be pleasing and have included in some furniture designs I have done but understand that this choice might not be the most appealing to all. When faced with design choices on placement, considering golden ratio relationships is not a bad place to start.