I also had the same experience.
After I started Rubik’s cubing, one day I was wondering why each COLL (except H set) has 72 cases, instes of 144.
There are 6 swap types (Front, Right, Back, Left, Diagonal swaps, and No swap) for the corners. And, there are 4 edge locations with 4 different-colored edges, so the there are (4!) = 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24 patterns (see the following <4 Edges' locations>)
In the class of high school, we were taught by the math teacher that if there are 4 boxes in line and 4 color balls, then there are 4 x 3 x 2 x 1 = 24 possible combinations/patterns to put in.
So, I thought mathematically the combination of corners and edges should be 6 x 24 = 144 patterns.
But, Not in the Rubik’ cube!
<4 Edges' locations>
There are following 24 cases of permutation of the 4 edges. The 4 letters correspond to the 4 edge locations(UF, UR, UB, and UL).
BRGO, BROG, BGRO, BGOR, BORG, BOGR,
RBGO, RBOG, RGBO, RGOB, ROBG, ROGB,
GBRO, GBOR, GRBO, GROB, GOBR, GORB,
OBRG, OBGR, ORBG, ORGB, OGBR, OGRB
(B=Blue, R=Red, G=Green, O=Orange)
After having checked web sites, I now know that the half of them can not be combined with each COLL.
For example, This is a normal T25, which exists and is solvable.
But T25 with UB and UL interchanged, does not exist because this can not be solved.
After I understood the reason, I could start to sleep well at night.