I agree with your TLDR;, but as you say, we're in a culture of 6-to-8 pages. I actually quite like the 8 page limit for most papers, it forces authors to a brev

I agree with your TLDR;, but as you say, we're in a culture of 6-to-8 pages. I actually quite like the 8 page limit for most papers, it forces authors to a brevity of expression that aids focus, but you're right that details are the first thing jettisoned. If I'm going to propose a probably impossible sea change, taking the baby step of saying "just show me what you've already done" instead of "now write another 12-20 page set of documentation" is the more likely of the impossible two :) In a perfect world, we'd have both!