I bake bread! For a living, to boot. Although, at roughly 10k loaves of bread an hour, there's a slight bit more automation spread across me and more than a dozen other people than what it takes y'all to make a batch of bread :). I can explain the process in slightly broad terms (I don't presume to have the authority to discuss specifics of a recipe), if ya think it will provide some insight. We make white, wheat, whole grain, whole wheat, light breads, and combinations thereof. Sorry, no experience with rye bread.
Glen, they are dead-on about the precision of it. We make bread by the 700 to 1,200 lb batch, and water & yeast are modified sometimes by as little as 1/2 % depending on climate trends (summer vs. winter). Some things like the vitamin enrichment concentrate (doesn't apply here) don't even get a quarter pound for the amount of bread we make.
"Yarrr! Yeast be a fickle mistress!" They already mentioned what I wad gonna say about the lil buggers needing a food source.
Scoring the bread might be less important if you use a bread loaf pan (your loaves would have to be MUCH smaller than that one lol), as the pan would force the vertical expansion in place of lancing what will become the crust. You can still score it, naturally as a matter of preference.
In a geeking-out related note: y'all captured & made, then stored your own yeast (flour and yeast, unconcentrated mix)?