I agree that it's worth trying to get these things right, but at the end of day imo it's mostly futile.
The smartest figure makers in the game are operating with different time charts, different beaten length charts, different philosophies on pace and weight, handle track speed changes differently, start with different figure inputs and hence make different variants for the same day, barely even use time for turf races etc..
If you've ever had 5 sets of the best figures on your desk at the same time (like I have), you'd see so many differences (some wildly large) your confidence in your ability to get the values right using figures would definitely be shaken. If not, it should be.
As far as the historical record goes, there are sets of figures that have been slowly drifting faster over time, figures that have been slowly drifting slower over time, and still others that stayed the same.
Most figures makers are using different methodologies now than in the past
The racetrack surfaces have changed.
The drug rules and uses (legal and illegal) have changed.
The times of races obviously matter a lot, but the relationship between race development/track surface/time is very complex and individual by horse and the variant process so dependent on the figure maker we are mostly debating a range of plus or minus several lengths. In this case that means "ridiculously unbelievably fast" or "omg did you see that".
