im not sure what i said that is not true. maybe next time you can be more descriptive with your words.
i modded long ago with 1.5.2 and jumped all the way to 1.14 and so i dont know about any of the versions in between.
if you are talking about the materials not meaning much in older versions, in 1.5.2 the materials had no major effect on the block and were mainly used as a grouping system by mods.
if you are talking about the materials in 1.14 there are definitely materials that force the block to not require any tool to be harvested. as i posted before you can check it out in:
net.minecraftforge.common.ForgeHooks