It still doesn’t beat the long term durability and 100% recyclability of copper though. If I was doing an install in a factory or somewhere where the plumbing would require frequent modification then the fact that pex is easier to work with would probably make me go that route. But in my house where I will be replumbing once and then it will be almost entirely burried in the walls and left alone for decades, I would rather just put the extra work in and do it with copper.

I’m not sure about shower valves in particular but I have devinitely brazed directly to regular nylon core plumbing ball valves before by using the rag trick.in that case you just wrap the valve itself with the wet rag.

Yep. Thas is all that’s in silphos. For any work that isn’t copper to copper then I would need to use silver brazing wire which is just copper, zinc, tin, and silver.

Yep there are crimp fittings but they cost more and the seal in those fittings is only rated to last so long. Of course that is a very long time (50 years I think) but I still prefer sweat fit copper that lasts for the life of the pipe.

Copper pipes don’t leach microplastics into my drinking water, are 100% recyclable, and are more durable.

The same is actually true of a lot of refrigeration components as well. You just wrap a wet strip of rag around the pipe to act as a heat barier between where you’re brazing and the sensitive component. As long as the rag stays wet (which it will unless you go really slow) then heat won’t significantly propogate past that point. Just doing that can let you braze a joint within 1" of a plastic component as long as you’re careful where you point the torch.