I'm currently writing my PhD thesis' State Of The Art.
I have subdivided the field of study. My problem is that I found my self on many occasions writing paragraphs as follows:
'Several authors has proposed to use the K-POP method to enhance the egnasticity of the computations by solving the Muffin equations. In [1] statistical values are used with X improvements. Smith [2] proposes a Montercarlo solution for Muffin with this and that results. Also...
And then I realize that there are at least 20 different ways to solve Muffin equations. I could further subdivide the field, but I don't want because this won't really contribute much to my SOA, because all I need to point out is that egnasticity can be improved using a solution to Muffin equations.
At this point I wonder: How exhaustive should I be when enumerating all the works of a given area that I don't want to subdivide any further? Should I describe all? Should I describe some and cite all? Should I describe some and cite some?
Note: needles to say 'egnasticity' or 'Muffin equations' are silly names for the example and the K-POP is usually used for different purposes than research.