Valvoline VR-1 vs. Lucas Hot Rod oil

The W he's talking about are all multi-grades.
The W spec brings the viscosity closer to the desired range at both higher and lower operating temperatures.
The disadvantages were mostly in how the manufacturing of that impacted other things. That's much less the case these days in good quality oils made from the base stocks he mentioned. Just watch the Kinematic viscosity getting too low on some of the multigrades, especially for racing. Widman covers that in his most recent revision. One advantage of buying a 15W-40 or 20W-40 was/is those minimum specs are higher in those grades (and the 20W-50 too). But nowadays all the reputable manufacturers have specs we can ask for, or we can send samples out for testing.
So we can find 10W-30 that will hold up in the same way at high temperatures, perssures and shears etc.