Someone needs to start re-casting 340 blocks

ounces add up to pounds.

you do enough of the little stuff and reap bigger rewards. say running the smaller smaller journal lets you run a smaller bearing, that heats less, which means you can run it harder, longer or at a higher rpm without failure and it has less parasitic loss. it might be worth .25 HP from idle to 4K but if it's worth 5 from 5200~7000 and it keeps the engine in one piece long enough to finish the race then that's a worth while upgrade.

Smaller bearings are lighter. That’s one reason why smaller rod throws are generally better.

A smaller throw means a smaller lighter bearing.

NHRA screwed everyone when they banned composite connecting rods. They didn’t need a rod bearing. The rod ran on the crank.

IIRC a standard 2.100 bearing is 52ish grams.

Getting rid of the bearings is a huge weight savings.