while you might assume all beans are identical, they arenāt. older beans take longer to cook. personally, i prefer to presoak using less water initially - allowing the beans to absorb liquid overnight allows one to gauge more accurately how much water to add, if necessary, for cooking and thus have more control over the consistency of the pot liquor.
iāve routinely used beans as a protein source for years feeding the homeless, and iāve had a lot of latino folks tell me my beans taste like the ones made by their mothers/grandmothers. personally, i find it hard to mess up pinto beans. i like using an electric pressure cooker that i can just set and forget - and because thereās less evaporation, monitoring the initial amount of liquid is important.
as much as i love pintos, black beans have become my go-to for beans and rice. garlic, cumin, onion and couple of chili peppers - and i never use the same amount - just by feel. secret ingredients may include a shredded head of cabbage (which completely disappears into the beans after cooking, but adds a sweetness), if pork skin attached to a little fat/meat is available, a piece big enough to cover the beans. maybe bouillon or fish sauce - and now that iām serving boxed servings, a squirt of olive oil on top of each individual serving.
iāve become a fan of salt/fat/acid/heat. while salting before is generally recommended by nosrat, you can salt certain things too much or too early. the important thing is to understand what youāre doing and know the qualities of the particular salt that youāre using, not to mention the qualities of the other ingredients. if i use bouillon or say, fish sauce or something else thatās a source of salt, you should adapt accordingly.
My mom nor grandma never soaked the beans. But I agree with you. I do mostly because of that timing issue. Also, I often make beans to then add to other dishesā¦ so for me the soaking gets a nice jump start for the skin and inside the bean so that it cooks more evenly.
PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT: something the article does not address - potential digestion issues. on my last batch, i did not replace the soaking water of my black beans, and yesterdayā¦ how can i put thisā¦ i experienced a prolific level of pungent & audible flatulence that made me grateful for the lockdown.
i shall not neglect to change the soaking water ever again.
You know bean-related flatulence was what got Harold McGee interested in food science?
The main reasons for presoaking beans are to shorten the cooking time substantially, and to leach out the indigestible carbohydrates that make beans gassy. The disadvantage of presoaking is that you also leach out many other soluble materials, including vitamins and minerals.
You retain more nutrients by cooking the beans in the soak water, but you also retain the gassy carbohydrates. I recommend soaking beans, then cooking them in the same water at a bare simmer for at least a couple of hours, even if theyāre soft before then. Extended cooking breaks down the gassy carbohydrates.
https://consults.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/23/a-healthy-way-to-boil-beans-and-saute/
LOL!!! YES! I always change the water (And add epazote) 
You beat me to it, @robert - came here to post the same link.
I love that she writes of cooking beans as a ritual: thatās an attitude I strive to embrace, especially during these challenging times when it feels like Iām cooking beans (or lentils) every week.
to each their own; i could be very hands on and grill a steak to medium rare, watching, feeling, smelling, etc. the entire way - or i could use sous vide techniques to bring the meat up to the appropriate temperature and then simply sear the meat. if a third party canāt taste the difference between the two steaks, the question becomes: is it somehow impure to substitute technology for experience/skill?
if iām making refried beans, itās not really possible to overcook them; you donāt care if the beans split - and youāre essentially mashing them when you ārefryā them. so why not use an automated process to cook them?
if one places additional value derived from an entirely hands-on process, fine, but if a third party canāt taste any difference between dishes that are otherwise identical except for the amount of interactive monitoring of the process, should it matter? i think i referred to using my electric pressure cooker as āset and forgetā. i also ācheatā by adding layers of fatty pork skin and sometimes seared/browned pork butt/shoulder/leg which i remove afterwards, and continue to cook in a slow cooker with a salsa verde for another four hours for pork chile verde, which i also essentially āset and forgetā. i can live with that since iām cooking for a group.
Serious Eats says brining beans in water and baking soda produces the creamiest beans.
Sorry, didnāt realize there was a dedicated thread to this, also posted here. I just tried a batch earlier this week with just salt and today with the salt and soda brining. Not stringently controlled conditions but the same recipe from the same type of beans cooked the same way and the salt and soda definitely makes a difference.