Duritz, at last a bit of debate in respect of this subject. When I posted my initial thoughts I wished to engender some worthwhile diversity of opinions and this now appears to be happening. The points you make are valid and I, to some extent, have similar views. The point behind my initial post was that in races(NB. at all levels, ie. maidens open handicaps etc) there are specific class differentials between the runners contesting any particular race, meaning that some runners are capable of progressing and others have no real future prospects. The astute punters' task is to find those runners which are running "out of their class" in relation to other horses and this may provide a suitable betting opportunity. eg. a Cranbourne C3 race may have a runner which ran 3rd in a C4 race beaten by a relatively small margin at another country track. The punter has to determine whether there was merit in this run and whether he/she may have a possible "class" edge in today's race. It's all relative and requires some ability to determine the differentials in each class category, eg. the winner of a Class3 may be "head and shoulders " above runners in a Class4 on the same program "classwise". These are the horses which quickly work their way through their classes and astute punters may be able to benefit. eg. how many times have we heard a commentator declare "that was a good form race?" What he/she is getting at is that there are a number of class horses which are capable of going forward and competing competitively against stronger opposition, perhaps at good prices.
I think your other points reiterate what I was getting at in my original post.
Chrome Prince- interesting aspect that you have raised, I'll watch with interest.
During the week when I am at a particular venue and have not done the form in any great detail, I will wager utilising, in particular, the class angle and I can assure you that it provides a very profitable betting medium. Sure, there is skill involved to identify the "value" runners but the information is there for all punters to digest if they are interested.
So yes, I will remain "obsessed" with this particular aspect of form evaluation as unless the whole pattern of racing were to change overnight there will always be runners which have an inherent "class" advantage over their opponents.

Cheers.