Question regarding duplicates

This is rather a question than a feature request. Especially, when doing handheld brackets with a non-OM1 camera, there is no constant/accurate movement of the focus plane along the Z-axis. Naturally, this results in duplicate focus planes. Sometimes, there are even backward movements.

I’m just wondering how such situations affect the overall stacking result. Rumors say, when using PMax it doesn’t matter a lot, but for DMap a continuous shift of the focal plane in one direction is essential.

Now, if it would matter, would there be an easy way to identify duplicates - or nearly duplicate - frames in advance? Or is that handled anyway already by the stacking and/or alignment algorithms. On the other hand, getting rid of duplicate images might result in a speed improvement, wouldn’t it?

BTW: What programming language are you using? As a software developer, I have to know that 😄 .