Ballast - How does it relate to plants?

Thanks for the ballast info everyone. I just read about
magnetic ballast, people taking out the old ballast, putting in
a new ballast. Buying a cheap light, but replacing the ballast
and maybe hood, etc.

What for?

Do certain ballast make the plants grow better? Or is it a guy
thing, where you buy a car but have to replace the rims because
it looks cooler?

Excuse me for my newbie-ness, but I don't have a phd in this,
and when I look through google, there's too much stuff and I
can't sit all day and read, and confusing - one person says
this and another says that. Also, I don't know exactly why
people do the things they do, like pmdd, koh, k, n, T8, T12,
lumens, chroma, etc.

My plants grew large with a lot of neglect and without all
that, but if I try it - will I get superplants that grow
faster?

Thanks for the info.