Custom Data on primitives or instances is a usable way to set parameters for rendering. Using Сustom Data also is optimization of material instances count.

A common problem here is the limited number of custom date indexes. Each index includes one float with a range 3.4E +/- 38. It is a large range which is not always a need. Changing the precision to additional indexes is a great solution.

The plugin helps to split each selected index into additional four indexes, with a range of 1 byte. This way you can combine indexes with a large range and partitioned indexes with a truncated range. Instructions: https://teres4enko.blogspot.com/p/plugins.html