I learned something today. Another question, why do people use Garam Masala, when surely it's merely a blend of other ingredients you are already adding or am I wrong?
Having worked in india, we only ever added GM at the end of the dish because of its aromatic qualities . Todays modern BIR youtube chefs * bung it in all over the place. I personally have only ever ground my own spices to requirement. My GM is a lot darker as it contains quite a fair bit of black cardamon pods among other spices. I believe this is more of a Pakistani version but maybe Spurly could confirm.
So do you use it to supplement for spices you don't have or just for the sake of it (I'm assuming it's not your own blend btw), excluding the at the end like, which you have both explained perfectly.