Traditionally, the justification for a pre-wash was promoting more even development. I never understood how that could be. If I submerge a sheet of film in a tray, the developer contacts all parts of the emulsion plus or minus a fraction of a second difference. That tiny, tiny relative difference in the start time of development is never going to be detectable on the negative. And even if the film is already "wet," then it would still not be completely instantaneous. I've never done it with Kodak or Ilford films and had no issues. The two to three seconds it takes to fill a roll film tank doesn't make the deeper parts of the emulsion noticeably more dense, and that difference is far more than wetting a sheet of film.
Now if the FOMA green dyes are an issue that might be different. And I don't know what 'developer shock' is unless it relates to price.
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