I’ve always felt the auto systems kept plants small because of the high frequency of watering and no dry out.
My plants get damn near dry dry dry before they get watered.
Sorry if it is unhelpful/out of context...I didn't read that far back (LSC is too much to follow but I peek in when sometimes); but fwiw, when I'm growing 100 day autos, their roots are fully submerged in my SIPs for about 70+ of those days, and they are clean with clear water at chop, and I have no idea what soil PH is throughout a grow (water gets roughly PH'd with drops to the mid-6s going in):Oh I do think about stuff like that and on the other hand the roots can grow fully submerged in water so can they really be over watered. Don't get me wrong I get what your saying and do agree