Cam degreeing. I totally don't understand.

I think people fuss too much about 'exact' cam position. Dot to dot, 4* adv or 4* retarded etc...
Unless you are building an exact duplicate that was dyno tested & the cam position varied to get best HP, it is just a guessing game.
David Vizard makes a very good point about cam position: the closer the cam specs are to being perfect for that parts combination, the more HP will be lost if the cam position is not optimised. The opposite applies.....
For the average Joe [ or John or Jill.. ], I would install it dot to dot. After the engine has been run, you can change the cam position to see what, if any, difference it makes.