Maybe the use of "x" as a wildcard in rhyme schemes seems more intuitive to me because I was a classical languages undergraduate, and I got used to seeing "x" marking the anceps in quantitative meters (when either a long or short syllable is acceptable). For example, the scansion model for a Sapphic stanza in Greek or Latin is
– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –
– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –
– ∪ – x – ∪ ∪ – ∪ – –
– ∪ ∪ – –
Of course, that's a bit different, as the "x" there is only indicating either of two possibilities.
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