Is there an MVVM-friendly way to swap views without value converters firing unnecessarily?

You should look at PRISM or any other composite UI framework. Prism will give you a great mechanism for this type of thing.

I solved this by getting rid of all IValueConverter and IMultiValueConverter classes and just using the ViewModel to provide all data. It turns out, this requires less code and hassle, and doesn't sacrifice anything that I'm aware of.

I cant really gove you an answer,but what I can give you is a way to a solution, that is you have to find the anglde that you relate to or peaks your interest. A good paper is one that people get drawn into because it reaches them ln some way.As for me WW11 to me, I think of the holocaust and the effect it had on the survivors, their families and those who stood by and did nothing until it was too late.