B3,
It is a pity you cannot mount an argument without resorting to insults & name calling. Includes your cheer squad [ not IQ52 ].
I am not sure what you mean by your last sentence in the above post. If you mean the rocker is pretty much vertical [ prod side up in the air ] when it is normally ~ horizontal, then yes valve side has zero length.
And you are still not getting it....
The engine builder you describe 'bending' the rules did indeed change the overall ratio. Which anybody with any common sense can see because the lobe lift remined the same, but valve lift changed with different length prods. Example, 1.5 ratio with short pushrods, 1.57 with long prods. How the change occurred, wasted motion you claim & I agree with that, is besides the point. The fact is that ratio change occurred.
And yes, you are right, the roller & the adjuster didn't get any further from the fulcrum centre. But what you keep failing to understand is the contact points DID change. And these contact points changed in your short/long prod example, which changed the valve lift, & the overall ratio.
If your theory was correct, a rocker arm's ratio at any given increment of lobe lift will always be the same. It is not & this is known from measurements taken.