There's a third perspective (and probably more) that i've become more conscious of from reading more Flornoy interviews and his LWB's recently, which is the position that a genuine spiritual power or transmission existed among certain engravers and the quasi-monastic "compagnons" but were lost elsewhere. He claimed for example that a true transmission/training/mastery existed among the artisans involved in the Dodal and Noblet decks, which is what led him to make them I suppose (citing Merme as the last true master) that was absent in pretty much all later decks, including the Conver (!). He went as far as to refer to such decks as "fantasy decks" and the product of copyists. He claimed the same about Merme's son, the engraver for the Payen decks, who had only begun his training at the age of 18 when his father died. In other words the internal meaning was lost on his son and can be seen in the Payen decks too.
Interestingly (to me anyway) he claims an example of this can be seen in the upward shooting flames in the Tower - which was gone by Conver's time. He speculates that a Syrian Sufi influence might have been present.
Im not sure if he is speaking from research or his "inner eye". While this can easily offend on one hand, on another, these two decks in particular do seem to me to have a distinctly different feel. The Dodal feeling intensely direct, triggering impressions in a "flash" like way, while the Noblet seems to draw me in more slowly, engaging my frontal lobe a bit more. So there may be something in what he says. I dunno.
