Is it perhaps also a difference in intended use? If iNaturalist is for wildlife and uses location heavily, eg identifying tropical houseplants indoors in a different region might not work.
The GPS helps with a “seen nearby” weight, but it shouldn’t exclude anything. Could be a factor of photography, with some plants it’s easier to get a nice canonical leaf shape than others. Taking a wide angle of a potted plant such that the whole plant is in frame might not provide enough detail, so there’s a learning curve in knowing how to photography for the algorithms benefit, kind of like learning how to phrase search queries for better Google results
Could be, I just set location data on it with the original location of the plants, but it still cannot ID them. Granted, they are not very common species.
