Yes true. RAAM riders are a pretty extreme example and really aren't "touring" by most definitions though. They also take a much more direct route.

I personally know of no tourists that wound up doing a TA in under 45 days, but I am sure there have been some. I have heard of several that did self supported XC tours with an average daily mileage of at or close to 100 miles not counting days off. Sagged it would be a much more do-able thing, but none of the sagged riders we met were doing extremely long days.

Also, it seems like any riders who want to cross the US as fast as possible would take a more direct route than the TA. It probably adds an extra 1300 miles.