Critical to the success of any project is the amount of time given to preparing the brown coat or leveling coat. In the past, when French lace textures or heavy grit sand finishes were popular, preparing the brown coat was a matter of rodding a wall, knocking off the clinkers and curing the heck out of the plaster. Given enough time, the wall would get hard, crack out and your texture would hide almost every variation in the plane you left untouched.
In the current environment, where code officials, superintendents, architects, designers, and owners are becoming sensitized to every variation in the plane and are specifying finer grit finishes, both in stucco or synthetic finishes, the plastering industry might define the process of achieving superior quality by explaining how to prepare the brown coat based on the type of texture specified.