While there was some "freelancing" during the war -- usually when new camouflage instructions were unclear or specific colors were unavailable -- the USN tried
many different patterns (or "measures") during the war, especially in the Pacific, and issued extensive guidelines and patterns (keyed to specific classes of ships) for their use. Obviously some were better than others for specific purposes, but the Navy put a lot of effort and bureaucratic process into developing them. It wasn't a haphazard business, even if some of the resulting schemes look like they were made up on the spot.
The black and white dazzle patterns you've seen are likely variations of Measures
31 and
32.