Originally Posted by
John E
"Center to top" generally means center of bottom bracket to top of top tube, not seat post collar.
Today, maybe, but not originally. Seat tubes stick up more now than they used to.
Per Sheldon Brown:
"
The old standard system was to measure from the center of the bottom bracket to the very top of the seat tube."
But yes, I agree with you, CTC is the better method (assuming the stop tube is level, which on new bikes it often isn't).