I'll try to answer following the non-sectarian rules.

MLs uphold Mao as a theoretician of marxism-leninism, but don't see him as doing anything different from MLism, which we hold to be the most adaptable ideology of communism and so we don't see a point in considering that Mao wrote

Mao himself wrote for the conditions of China at the time and didn't call himself anything other than a marxist-leninist. Some of the stuff he wrote and theorised some people have told me had been practiced by Lenin before him, just without a name (like the mass line). I'm not sure about that personally but it's what some people say.

Where it gets complicated is you have ML-MZT (Marxist-Leninist with Mao Zedong Thought, not repudiating that Mao was an ML but incorporating what's applicable from him into MLism), Maoism, MLMism, and still some MLMpM -- Marxist-Leninist-Maoists (principally Maoists).

Though nowadays from what I understand you pretty much only have MZT and MLM left, and they just call themselves Maoists.

I also heard in China some people call themselves Maoists and it has a different meaning than in the rest of the world, but I don't know about that personally.

Gonzalo was the leader of the Shining Path, or Communist Party of Peru - Shining Path (there were two parties). He was the one who first synthesized Maoism in the 80s, and I think also started MLMpM. He alleged -- or at least Maoists allege -- that Mao's contributions to marxism were sufficient to consider MLMism the most advanced ideology of the proletariat, and thus all MLs should become MLMs, like all Marxists previously became Marxist-Leninists. Personally, in the time Maoism has existed, I have never seen the universality of the protracted people's war. It has only succeeded in China so far, and was practiced by Mao due to the conditions in China at the time: a large population fighting against an outside invader in a mismatched war (Japan being much more trained and equipped than the Chinese).

Now, I hope this still assumes good faith and doesn't break the non-sectarian rule, but it's no secret (although still a bit niche) that Maoism was also being promoted by the CIA both in the US and outside, because they wanted it to exacerbate the Sino-Soviet split in a divide and conquer move. In Peru, where Gonzalo was from and operated, the CIA even distributed the little red book in universities. Gonzalo himself was quite a character and you know, there's been controversy with the Shining Path regarding civilian populations, but at the same time there's also lies against communist figures so I won't get into these incidents here.

I'm not saying Maoists are feds mind you, but it could help explain why there are so many Maoist ideologies and subgroups and why many actually disagree with each other. The PPW that I talked about is apparently not upheld and practiced by all Maoists. You also recognize Maoists because sometimes, they like to speak in very poetic prose, I think coming from Mao's own writings (he was a poet before he became a writer).

Maoists also don't uphold the AES line, which is held by all MLs and was first theorised by someone from the USSR whose name I forgot, I think shortly after Stalin's death. To that end Maoists don't believe China is socialist, which is the biggest demarcation in the west between MLs and MLMs. Though to be honest, I realise when writing these lines I actually have no idea why they don't like China and what that has to do with Mao's writings. I think it might come from the Three Worlds theory he wrote on which... was completely wrong. Like there's Mao the general, and there's Mao the statesman. And the two are very different lol, Mao kinda became cringe towards the end of his life. That's also why we sometimes call them ultras (since you were asking), because no revolution is ever good enough for them if it isn't waged exactly how they want it to.

The one thing we all kinda agree on is the USSR became revisionist after Stalin lol