Valve Clearance on Larger Camshaft and Flat Top Pistons

Newbomb Turk said
You’ve over thought it to the point you are going down the rabbit hole.

There is no way clay will bend a valve. You’ll have so much clearance it’s silly.

I don’t have the time to screw around and do it twice.

I knew where this is where you’d end up.

Nowhere did I say clay will bend a valve, so you're being disingenuous. In fact, I mentioned multiple times when I measure with clay and heavy springs, which I've bolded below. While you may not, I have the time to relax and check in the fashion I explained, which usually requires checking once and not twice. If a tight clearance requires that I check with clay, I also have time to do that.

Fish Bite said
If clearance with the checking spring confirms no piston-valve contact but shows clearance is under minimum, I move to a clay test with the heavy springs for the more accurate measurement.

If the checking spring and dial indicator shows minimum or greater clearance, there's no need for me to then check with heavy springs and clay since I know there will be added clearance with the heavy springs. The exception here where I proceed to clay and heavy springs even with minimum clearance is if I'm concerned about clearance between the relief wall and valve. I'm not building engines to the performance level that I'd want to adjust parts to decrease valve clearance down to the minimum, but I'd measure with clay and heavy springs after the initial checking spring measurement if this were my goal.