Good points. Increasing torque/hp was never on the agenda with my engine rebuild. I went with stock stuff, including the valves, heads, cylinders, pistons and muffler. Just a few concessions to reliability like the oil bypass, PartsKlassic CDI box, updated tensioners and ARP studs. Pretty much invisible.
The valve seat project was something Robert undertook on his own...because that's just the way he is. And he didn't ask. And of course it took months longer as a consequence. Winter months, which normally wouldn't matter, but health issues made getting this back more urgent. As far as I can tell, he decided to do this project because he got a new multi-axis mill in the shop, whereas previously he used to send that stuff out. He has played with porting in the past, but all you get from that is a reduction in flow velocity that does no good. He did touch up the bowls, with intake and exhaust different as you note because of the flow directions.
He freely admits that most of his experience is with T, E and RS motors including many race versions. So experimenting on an S was something new. Yep, it's a rabbit hole one can easily go down. But it is an attribute that I can relate to. I designed and built the 6 zone HVAC system in our house 15 years ago, and spent 5 more years fine tuning it to perfection. Who does that other than OCD people?
Of course if I had wanted to build a modded 2.4 S, there are many other things I would have done, but the aim of this project was really to be original and resist things like wider wheels, prototipo steering wheels and the like. Early on in this thread, with the input of this community, I decided to not put a radio back in (there had been some aftermarket '80s crap in there) because the car did not come with a radio in the first place. The only glaring exceptions on the originality front were the headliner (non-hex) and the rear latch panel (we couldn't find a good used one over a year of looking and RD didn't make that version until a couple of years later when the longhood market took off).