Method of Importing Details Containing Families With Unequal Parameters
One of the most obnoxious things I am dealing with is that when I import details containing Family Instances that do not have identical parameters (such as a single added parameter for "Draw As Hidden"), Revit duplicates the family name ("Box" becomes "Box1") and sometimes also renames the type.
There are several more logical solutions. For example, if you reload a single family's definition, Revit keeps all identical parameters, and assigns the default value to any new parameters. This would be a logical method for family instances in imported elements. An alternate method could be a dialog (for each "same name but inexact parameter" family) that prompts for what value to assign to the new parameter.
What is most obvious is that the current method is woefully inadequate, causing a model to have 4,5.....8 different families that are almost identical but for the "added features". This discourages evolution of families once you identify new options the family should have had already. Nobody creates a family with ALL of the features you could possibly want, since many of these needed features only become obvious upon use.