I think Post 75 demonstrates that, on these heads in particular, the as cast SSR form becomes an area that holds back the progress early on…….which is why I start tweaking it pretty early in the porting process.
That’s not to say that some of the “area” enhancements couldn’t be worth some amount of power on a stroker bracket race type combo(even if they showed next to nothing on the bench).
But if I’m doing a budget oriented porting job, I’ll spend some time on the SSR before spending much time on the PRP or head bolt bulge.