Spell Speed does affect the damage of Ifrit and co though I'm not sure to what extent (have done 0 testing on this one) - I can begin gathering data on this for you, just curious what all you'd need data wise.

Clarification on the book whacking? You posted CRT > SS > CRT? Which one was supposed to be DET (if any?) I think most people are trying to book whack on extremely stationary fights (Faust) and abandoning it when it's not feasible. Not sure how often this is happening overall.

Let me know if I can help anymore, Dervy! The SS winning over CRT and DET is incredibly interesting, I wouldn't have guessed that!