I have looked for any rules on this and cannot find any, and before you say "It doesn't matter flavour however you like", I have a specific example.
In the alchemist subclass for the artificer class the 5th level feature Alchemical Savant reads:
Whenever you cast a spell using your alchemist’s supplies as the spellcasting focus
Does this mean that if the spell has no material components that it cannot use this feature?
Best Answer
All Artificer spells have material components and require a focus.
With the November 2020 errata to the Artificer class, the Artificer’s Spellcasting feature now reads:
You must have a focus to cast any of your artificer spells, which means every artificer spell you cast has an M component, even if the spell description doesn’t say it has M components.