I read three or four articles on gauging a few days ago, and only one of them mentioned blocking your gauge swatch. Since all of them start by defining gauge, you'd think they'd be assuming no prior knowledge, so to me that means that they probably don't block their swatches. On the other hand, if they're starting so basic, that would imply they're not talking about swatching lace where you would have to block it to have any idea of the size since lace is generally not beginner level knitting.

I don't know. Gauging is still hard. Measuring knitting is hard too.