BabaJ

Generally you should be able to do what you want with a ramp parameter,
but since you haven't provided a hip file we can't see the context/setup you are applying the ramp parameter in.

gordig
Everything I'm reading about the Solver SOP suggests that it's meant to run every frame,

Yes it does run every frame, but it also has the capacity to 'know/get' values from the previous frame.

gordig
If I plug that same VEX code into the Solver SOP, I get the same results as before

Yes of course you will have to modify your code to reflect what you want to do.
At the moment you actually don't have any 'absolute' values to reference to carry forward for each next frame, because you are constantly changing your reference every frame (@f) and changing it twice on those instances in which it matches a frame number.

gordig
If that gets stored by the conditional executing, then the new value of @f will drive the next blink.

But it doesn't get 'stored'. It only knows what the current values as they are per frame.

gordig
I could pre-generate a list of blink frames based

Yes...that's kind of a 'brute' force way of doing things.
You might want to look at how sop solvers work, as you can work as if values are stored.

If you look at this page, the initial explanation should help show how it is similar with what you are doing.
https://tokeru.com/cgwiki/The_solver_sop.html#prev-frame-vs-previous-frame [tokeru.com]