Revisiting the technicalities of Hunger of Hadar

[Segev]

If darkvision and devil's sight can see into it from outside, then theymwould permit witnesses to see he tentacles and know they are milky. Alternatives include that they smell or taste that way. Why anybody might be tasting them is not a question I care to explore in great detail. But they could be moist and smell of milk, I suppose.

Wrong. [Scrub the post, scrub the quote]
If Hunger of Hadar is darker than the darkness spell, 2d level, which by its description it is, then no, you cannot see into it any more than you can see out of it, unless you torture the meaning of the term darkness.

[Scrub the post, scrub the quote]

For da newt: maybe someone is trying to apply cheese so that they can see into HoH and shoot with advantage ..

You're the one torturing the words to say that it is darker than the darkness spell; nowhere is that stated.

Let's not get personal, here. The issue with language such as this spell uses is that it is ambiguous, and your interpretation is actually unsupported by the text. I am happy to agree that it is an evocative interpretation, but you are wrong to say it is the only one.

I think that "blackness" is enough, by itself, to say that you can't see inside it. At least, not with normal vision: The spell is ambiguous on whether darkvision and/or Devil's Sight will do it. Which ambiguity is really annoying, given that it's only on the list of the same class that usually takes Devil's Sight.

My table rules that it does stop darkvision and Devil's Sight, since it doesn't say that "blackness" is the same as "darkness", and so it stops everyone's vision, just like black fog would. But if someone else rules otherwise, well, I won't argue against them.

The exact wording is: "A 20-foot-radius sphere of blackness and bitter cold appears.... No light, magical or otherwise, can illuminate the area, and creatures fully within the area are blinded."
If the blackness, itself, were opaque, would there be need to state that light cannot illuminate the area? Opaque blackness would just be ... black, no matter what light fell on its surface, and opacity would naturally keep light out.

Now, maybe this is a signal that it is making an ink blot magical darkness effect, as differentiated from darkness's vantablack darkness. Or maybe it is must more poor wording and the part about illumination is wasted wording.

Certainly, I could see your reading being RAI, at least.