thanks for the explanation. I had incorrectly interpreted the OSMC web-page as implying that, in the presence of a /userdata version, the system-level version would be ignored at the file level (the “any settings … will override the System …”). I’d respectfully suggest the explanatory text on that could be written more clearly, e.g. along the following lines (if correct).
…At system boot-up, the system-level advancedsettings.xml file is processed. If it exists, the /userdata settings are then applied. Therefore, any parameters in the /userdata version which overlap with those in the system-level file will result in the system-level settings being over-written by the /userdata values.