Well, this is from a custom pipeline that loads shaders in runtime and can create techniques with them in an already-existing material (I know that material parameters are important, so it is assumed that the loaded shaders are compatible with the material, this is ensured elsewhere). So then, changing to a shader loaded in runtime is a matter of creating and switching the technique, not creating an entirely new material, which is a far greater task. I have examined your new class described here Live reload of material for shader dev but it also does a whole material reload.
What do you think? Is it better to stick to material reload? In my app the shaders can be received from network or UI, so, coupling this with loading a material file from disk or a material description string from elsewhere seems a bit an overkill… or doesn’t it?