I totally agree.
I look at it this way, like a piece of marble you chip away at to reveal the statue.
Same with hp the head it raw material and everything else is to reveal it's potential.
The rule of thumb is 2 hp per cfm but most engines fall short and to reveal that amount you'd need a serious amount of cam and cr.
Most hot or street strip engine is gonna run around a 285 ish cam with 10:1-11:1 cr. Which usually makes around 1.8-1.9 hp per cfm.
For a more street friendly engine your gonna want to be more 1.6-1.7 hp per cfm and around 1 hp per cid.
I agree that when pushing cam choice you should do everything you can afford to run less spring pressure. Even for a street engine beehives with a light retainer will allow less spring and give more engine life.