The difference would be in how much one gets from relying on others' recipes vs learning through experience. Watching cooking shows isn't sufficient to make one a good cook.
Riigghhtt....so the reason for not being willing to share is for the requester's own good, because the person not willing to share truly cares about what's best for that person, and that they learn to be a good soaper.....
It's a very good beginning on knowing WHERE to start, and there's a difference between 'relying on others' & making an open request for assistance, suggestions, and sure, recipes which people love. That's kinda what forums are for, and what life is for. Watch a cooking show, write down the recipe, go shopping for the ingredients, then start experimenting with what you also have in the house, make your mistakes. Likewise with soaping or anything else.
Every single one of us has started at zero & have had people help us in one manner or another along the way. Imagine YouTube without free videos generously made by soapers, and formulators, and so many other people willing to share their recipes, their experience & experiments. Imagine the internet without all of the soapers' websites, where soapers share information, formulations etc. How about recipe websites? Nope....nobody learns anything which might make them better at what they are trying to achieve from any of the above.....people who share make the collective experience of life better for everyone.
I can also say that people who have been willing to share things with me, and things I have been willing to share with others, are some of the best learning tools, especially if we explain WHY we love something, which can help any of us to feel motivated to go forward & experiment to make a formulation our own. Sadly, I find too many people who clutch at their petticoats like their virginity is at stake when someone asks a question or for advice on formulations. I recently met another natural skin care formulator at an outdoor market who, when I mentioned to her that I do something similar, clammed right up, wouldn't speak any further & began putting her products in boxes so I couldn't read the ingredients
Firstly, I actually wanted to buy something from her, but she would have none of that
We also both could have learned something from each other, and had a nice conversation, had she not behaved like that
Personally, I am tired of this crap attitude.
Being miserly with anything begets more of the same. Being generous & open, whether with information or whatever a person is capable of sharing, also begets more of the same.
Nobody gets through life, or soaping, or anything else for that matter, alone.
EDITED TO CLARIFY