From my 13 years of experience on finasteride, microdosing absolutely makes a difference in sides. I don't care what the serum DHT inhibition curve says. I had very minor sides on 1mg ED for 12 years, and I switched to 0.5mg ED and felt noticeably better after 2-3 weeks. Unfortunately, I started shedding after 3 months of making the switch. I then went up to 0.67mg ED and the shedding stopped but had a tiny increase in sides. No doubt that sides are dose dependent, at least for me.
I'm now trying to make the transition to topical finasteride 0.025% as a homemade solution with 5% topical min. I'm a week into it and I'm starting to feel better because I dropped my oral finasteride dosage from 1mg EOD to 0.5mg EOD so I can ease into topical until I know it works for me. I feel more aggressive and have morning wood every day for the last 3-4 days, and I'm in my mid-40s. I never really had ED issues, just slight brain fog and came and went and less morning wood.