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I wonder if turning off the blur/transparency effects in iOS results in any substantial battery difference...

It does, yes, but less substantial than on Mac, due to tighter vertical integration between software and hardware.

Can you be more specific? What exactly do I need to disable to see a battery life boost?

It's right there: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14948178

You need to enable the linked options which in turn disable some visual effects.

forgive my ignorance here (new to Mac), but which setting is this specifically?

In System Preferences, under Accessibility -> Display, there are two settings of interest: “Reduce motion” and “Reduce transparency”. The latter is the more important.

try in settings->Accessibility->Reduce transparency. this will also make the OS more responsive (minimizing, switching windows....)