Story pacing discussion (spoiler-tagged)

I searched first and found three threads that all contradict each other. It behaves as expected on one account and not on another, same device.

Once it clicked, it felt obvious, but getting there took far longer than it should have. Corrections welcome, especially if I got a detail wrong.

Not the answer you want, but the defaults are conservative on purpose, so there is usually headroom to gain.

The usual fix here is the difference is real but small enough that you may not notice it while playing.