I appreciate you explaining this.
I always thought that you placed emphasis on subtypes to help you type people more accurately...
If what you posted is your understanding of Socionics, I have a critique of it, which I hope you'll take in the spirit that it's intended, (constructive.)
To me, it seems that you're placing an awful lot of emphasis on the most obtuse, most theoretically weak (pseudo-science-y) characteristic of Socionics, i.e. the theoretical modeling of information elements.
The most compelling, useful characteristic of Socionics is this: there are identifiable types of people, (who can be described as XXXx
and the relationships between these types of people can be identified as a type of interaction (intertype relations,) which can be accurately described and even to a degree, understood.
The theoretical modeling of information elements should serve the aim of Socionics' most compelling, useful characteristics... And this is not a huge bone of contention, but nonetheless: your post seems to place unnecessary emphasis/attention on the Info elements (which are models,) to the detriment of reality. For example, let's examine a quote:
I'm not sure whether this came out the way that you intended, so I guess I'll just ask that you clarify it before I address it thoroughly... In brief though, this connotes (actually, at the end of your post, you straight-up denote,) that one cannot receive positive benefits from IM elements other than those valued by one's quadra... In other words, only four elements can potentially benefit each individual, whereas the other four will reap effects that are always somehow negative.
This understanding ignores reality in favor of a too literal interpretation of a theoretical model that is, at very best, flawed... As a ENFp, Fe is not one of my quadra values--to say that Fe cannot somehow benefit a ENFp is pretty inaccurate, I believe... Beyond that, your understanding isn't a hell of a lot different--it just places what some, I imagine, would consider to be unnecessary emphasis on the IM elements, to the detriment of the gestalt of the theory
No personal offense intended at all... I like you dude. Peace.