@class vs. #import

Question

It is to my understanding that one should use a forward-class declaration in the event ClassA needs to include a ClassB header, and ClassB needs to include a ClassA header t

Answer 1

Think of @class as telling the compiler "trust me, this exists".

Think of #import as copy-paste.

You want to minimize the number of imports you have for a number of reasons. Without any research, the first thing that comes to mind is it reduces compile time.

Notice that when you inherit from a class, you can't simply use a forward declaration. You need to import the file, so that the class you're declaring knows how it's defined.