Bob,
I Read all of it...They agree with me, as far as I can see.
My premise still stands with the three 'givens' I listed.
With equal tippet strengths that you can break with the rod, it's ONLY the tippet strength that determines how much pressure you can put on a fish and thus how quickly you can land it.
Again, if your tippet breaks at 4 pounds, it's not possible to put more than four pounds of pressure on the fish, regardless of the rod used.
You don't fight tarpon with a 3 wt. because you don't normally fish tarpon with 6 pound tippet.
Buddy