I agree. I think that it takes more work from hands more skilled than mine to coax more than 13.5k out of these saws with the longer stroke and older style closed port cylinders. I know some builders do it, I'm just not at their level at this time. These big dogs don't need to lay down sky-high RPM numbers to he strong in the cut on larger hardwoods.
I am very pleased with how this 288 turned out. Thanks and a tip of the hat to
@rattler for his services cutting the base and squish as well as for offering some advice on this build.