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Just taking a guess over here. There are probably systems where there is not much of a pressure drop between the boiler and the end of the main. Well piped, smaller system, with nice clean water in the boiler... Probably not much of a pressure drop. But take a larger boiler, that might be running at higher pressure than it really should, with a very long main, that might be undersized, with wet Steam which contributes to pressure drops, and there might be a significant pressure difference between the boiler and the far end of the main. Which would certainly lead to water being pushed out of the boiler. To accommodate all systems and scenarios, the A dimension probably became the industry standard. Just a guess

" and I found that the main filled a little quicker, like in 8 minutes instead of 9. No big deal, right? "

" (i) My main is vented well. I can speed it up a little by playing tricks, but there's no need to add more vents. "

Not tricks, better main venting. Reducing the boiler run time by a minute every cycle, I would think it would save a bunch of fuel (Money). If your boiler runs once an hour that's 24 minutes a day that you are not paying to burn fuel to push air out through a restrictive venting system.

I like my B&J Big Mouth.

I like the stud and brass nut system for coils some manufactures use ..

I sort of get the feelings, without doing proper experiments, that there is one set of rules for all systems. Small residential to large commercial. Well piped, under pipe, over piped..... Take a very large commercial system, maybe under piped and with very dirty water. Good possibility there will be a significant pressure drop by the time the steam gets to the end of the main.

You can walk around all day with your jeans on an no belt and your pants won't fall down.

But if you start working overhead and sucking in your gut your pants may fall down.

(Unless your fat like me)

So I wear a belt.

Thats how i think about equalizers.

You never know when you might need one.

Who wants to take the chance??

The various vent choices have much more to do with how fast and how completely the radiator heats than anything else — it might make a small difference to the banging, but very little. So don't worry about that.

bodge[bäj]verb

1. make or repair (something) badly or clumsily:"they were left in a half-finished house renovation when the company bodged improvement works" · "the door was bodged together from old planks"

Had to look this term up, but "unbodge" is clearly on point and should be part of the lexicon

Regards,

RTW