Interesting Sonny, I often look at welds and think "how rough"
Like you say, stops and starts not very smooth at all.
When I was doing a lot of Stainless sheet metal work (1mm sheet) I learnt very quickly that all components had to match perfectly, this then allowed me to make a nice clean weld with minimal, if any filler rod.
With my work today, I make all components fit together nicely, then lay in a nice weld.
The cleaning up is minimal, easy and results in a nice finish.
Not including the pipe to the flange joint, there are 6 welds in this photo below.