I switched from wrapped McDermott to a wrapped Meucci with lacquer over the wrap. I haven't experienced any negatives and I still have the look of the wrap. Also, the the wrap should last so much longer.
In this case, ball size is a relative term. The drills were designed for a 9' table, so one ball off of the rail produces a specific angle... Drop down to an 8ft table, and one ball off of the rail makes a different angle.
Variation is the enemy for the tournament director... Shot clocks reduce the variability but are costly to deploy. What it we put a shot clock only on the tables that go past a certain time limit like 1:30?
We deal with problems like this daily in manufacturing... We have tools like simulation modeling that tell us how a "system" will perform. Once we have the model we can change rules to see how affects the performance of the system. In manufacturing, we can try something and improve on it daily...