I'd say more like heat control. Transparents are a bit stiffer than most opaques. Take dark ivory for example. It can be the soupiest glass when you super-heat it trying to get certain effects. Like almost falling off the mandrel onto your bench soupy. Learn to control that, and you'll be well on your way to learning the heat control for any of the soft glasses. Transparent glass is stiffer and I guess easier to work with for beginners.
I can't say what those particular combinations in your post would be for, but any practice is good practice.
You'll learn which glass spreads, which ones get swallowed up, which ones have reactions....