His comment about the "zoo" of data-driven tests made the way my university's major algorithms class did tests finally make sense. It's not a concept that particularly easy to search for when you're working from the command of "make tests with this filename format, 'test-<args>'", nor is it even something that strikes one as something that might be an actual design pattern (at least for me).

I do wish the reasoning had been explained to me far earlier as I might have been able to really recognize the testing as useful and not just another strange requirement.