Another thing, my advice isn’t based on prerogative. It’s based on science that comes from people smarter than you or I.
strange just 2 days ago I was reading an evaluation of soil-types for hemp and it cited sandy-loam and peat as potentially viable for outdoor farmers. It was an US review IIRC. Let me just search for it.
I doubt peat is inert, although there are different peat. But I've used a mixture of black & white peat to run water through and it releases alot of good bioavailable stuff, that even showed up on an EC meter.
It's plant material that is broken down, yeah most if what it did contain has been washed out but not all. If you establish a bacteria culture in a peat based soil they may free more nitrogen when further breaking it down.
Isnt the general idea of soil that it is a mixture of plant material (in various stages of decay) + mineralic content?
10 years ago I took soil-probes on various outdoor locations where stinging nettles grew (before planting there) and the meter would show pH 8.0 & EC 0.01mS. The soil from the farmers field also shows this.
But it's not inert. Organic compounds mostly can't be traced, needs to be combusted during a lab analysis.
As for proper pH set, the ratio of nitrate-to-ammonia in the fertilizer has an influence on that.