Your comments on grading are sounding like the text I read in a really old pattern book. 
Perhaps rules for “user specified rules for alteration” is something that a future versions of patterns could include? The thought here was that within reason in a costume shop application it would be reasonable to be able to take an old pattern and ‘regrade’ it for a new performer without having to redraft the whole pattern. Various old ‘manuals’ also gave advice on ‘pattern alterations’ which didn’t need a whole new pattern. You noted elsewhere a pattern which distorted if it got too long, This is something “user alteration rules” could note and account for?