Totally agree most shouldn't push their cr to high, for most a possible pinging mess ain't worth 3% hp to go 10:1 instead of 9:1 and if you got an stock 8.?:1 your only down 3-5% hp.
Airflow is definitely where it's a, 360 with say 235 ish cam is gonna get massive different results with 273/318 head vs 360 head vs everything all the way up to trickflow and beyond. Everyone likes LS and Gen3 hemi cause it's like if 340/360 came factory with edelbrock/trickflow heads, why they can build great power with milder cams.