For illustration descriptions of bullet shapes, the G7 model can be a more accurate description for many bullets.
For ballistic solver/programs, coefficient values are all that is needed and used, and the bullet shape has no relevance. Sort to speak, ballistic solvers don't care what the bullet looks like or what shape it is, they just need to know the coefficient.
Donovan
What you say is correct and I'm sure you didn't mean to mislead anyone but someone new to long/mid range shooting might walk away with a misconception if they latch onto the phrase ".......... bullet shape has no relevance." So at the risk of picking nits, I'll say this.
Yes, a ballistic solver capable of accepting different drag functions doesn't care what the shape of your bullet is. If you put in a BC, it will give you an answer. But what most shooters really want is not just an answer, they want the correct answer.
I know you know this but the new guy needs to realize that basically, we shooters want to know the path of our bullet so that we can adjust our scope properly to get that first round hit under a variety of conditions. It's pretty obvious that distance, air density, MV, and bullet weight are key variables along with the force of gravity and look angle (up or down). Good programs include Coriolis effect and other smaller factors too. This stuff is pretty easy to understand/calculate.
What's harder is figuring out how the bullet slows down on it's way to the target and that depends on the bullet's drag which is definitely not linear and is quite tricky to describe accurately. The best we ordinary shooters have to work with at the moment are the published or tested BC's associated with whatever bullet we're using. Typically all our bullets have a published G1 BC and most long-range target bullets also have a published G7 BC. Reading the links mentioned in this thread will explain why mid/long range shooters using low-drag, boat-tailed bullets should rely on the G7 information.
As you say, there is no need to input bullet shape to a ballistic app but bullet shape is not irrelevant. Bullet shape is important and that's why shape is included in the drag model, G7 for most of us who shoot at mid/range targets.
Bottom line: G7 data is appropriate for F-Class shooters, to use one example, because our bullets look something like the G7 "standard" bullet. Even though a ballistic app doesn't "care" what the bullet looks like, the shooter should care and pick the appropriate drag model which has the bullet shape built in.