Forgive me for just responding to small portions of your post! But no: Shorter crank arms make it easier for your legs to do one thing, while longer crank arms make it easier for your legs to do something else.

The effect may sound like higher gearing or even feel like higher gearing, but they are not the same thing. So when you talk of "effective gearing" I know what you mean, but don't like the term.

More later! It's time for me to shut this PC down, hop on my folder with 140 mm crank arms, and forget about this discussion until Monday.