My 5.9L Magnum short block with ported open-chamber Edelbrocks "should" be soft on the bottom end with only 9:1 compression... I had the cam custom-ground by Racer Brown and it's not a problem, granted it has a converter that stalls around 2600 RPM but still. It would be better with closed-chamber heads and zero-deck pistons but that wasn't in the budget.
I love gaining knowledge and thinking about the theory but I also try to stay realistic and work with what I have/can afford and most importantly, what my actual goals are.