Reversing compiled code

On my path to ExHiROM I decided to stop by HiROM first, so I've extended my code to handle HiROM. I chose a fun small project Super Piccross to test this HiROM functionality upon, its pic-cross how hard can it be right? Also to learn the Lua extensions so I can modify/augment gameplay.

However the code was weird, once I worked out the bank register changes it started to make a little more sense but then still weird.

Then I noticed things like this..

which screams "this was done by a compiler", then the weirdness made sense. What it does is, sets Y to the "struct" pointer, and Bank to 7e and then DP to the other structure. This way all the code is

Which is maddening, as I work out a variable, but even if I change the label for it to it, it doesn't help because the code references it with a lda $XXXX,r since it can shift the X and Y around depending upon what the code needs they don't even always have the same offsets when used in different code.

Anybody got tips for this kind of thing? Do you see it often is worth adding "set offset" and look up into stuct systems to my regenerator?

Not necessarily done by a compiler. Humans program like this too.

Tips for what? Figuring out what every RAM address does? That is probably not possible.

Sure, but a human that can't see that this should be I doubt is going to go hardcore into Stack, DP, DB relocation, with offset strats.

Tips on how to track/manage/comment lessen the pain.

I think at this point every reference to a variable could become a two-part expression:

So you'd have "variable" labels that can be an absolute address, and "base" labels that give a name to a temporary frame of reference. The variable would remain identified and searchable with different base combinations this way.