Oh, glad to hear that you like it :) I created Waffle.
Yes, it's sort of evolved over time really. Brute force with heuristics, I'd say. The word list is certainly important, along with a few other things that I like to think keep the level of quality above the inferior knock-offs.
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Thanks for reaching out. I have done some word games for my own amusement and surprised myself how quickly I can try and reject permutations even in JavaScript. It has felt like the opportunity for a clever algorithm has been robbed!