Yes, pcoul has always done all of 1, 3, 4 and more;
Wonderful
I'm not sure what you mean by (2), it seems to have two parts in it: the '-px' option you already use lets you control the degree of the primes placed;
Apparently I didn't explain it clearly (even in Russian)
This is the same effect that causes you to use the "double step", but when applied to prime numbers other than 2.
Below I will try to explain with an example.
-- добавлено через 21 минуту --Example 1.
Suppose the maximum power of

in a batch is

, and it appears only in one position.
The Chinese Remainder Theorem guarantees that the number in the candidate chain is divisible by

. However, there is no guarantee that this number is divisible by exactly

, or even a higher power of

.
And if the number in this position is divisible by

or a greater power, then
a) either it won't work at all, since there won't be the required number of divisors
b) or the remainder will require some unlikely combination of divisors
This is not difficult to control using the "iterator" remainders modulo 3. Every third one will lead to this collision, and such remainders are called "forbidden" or "bad".
And further verification of such a chain is unnecessary. The chain will either be inherently invalid, or the probability of obtaining a valid number at that position will be greatly reduced.
Of course, this is if we're searching for a chain, not proving the minimality of a known one.
-- добавлено через 2 минуты --Example 2.
Let's say the maximum power of 3 in a batch is

, and it appears i
n two positions.
By similar reasoning, we find that there are two "bad remainders" modulo 3. Only one "good" remainder remains. This leaves us with the need to conduct further checks on the candidate chain.
-- добавлено через 5 минут --Efficiency.
The proportion of "good" remainder depending on the number of primes used is calculated as follows (assuming each prime yields one "bad" remainder):

If

, then

Only a third of the chains need to be checked. If the iterator range is large and upfront overhead is irrelevant, the speedup will be three times greater.
-- добавлено через 2 минуты --If, however, some prime numbers yield more "bad" remainders, the filtering is even better.
For the case in Example 2, the GR is halved.
-- добавлено через 48 секунд --Of course, this method must be enabled with a special key, as it can skip solutions and is not suitable for proving the minimality of a chain.