I'm not tooting any particular team here, but I have to ask. Are all those "upgrades" tested on the unit you are applying it to?
Saying one BOV is better because it has lower WOB is surely only applicable if it has been tested in your specific unit. Again I have to refer to my lack of CCR experience but from what I have read this seems to be a rather complicated area and just because XYZ reduces WOB on unit X doesn't automatically mean it reduces WOB on unit Y?
-Jacob
PS. personally, I find it strange when someone asks for numbers to compare with his/hers without providing ones him/her self (it might have been provided earlier in the thread and I missed it, in which case ignore this comment)
You can look at items in isolation, and you can look at items in combination.
I prefer to do both.
However, speaking about BOV (or DSV), you cannot compare two BOVs if you do not have WOB numbers for them.
They could be tested in isolation, or they could be tested on the same unit under identical conditions, or both, and then you can talk about the WOB of one vs. the other.
There is more that you can do though, and that is measure the internal volume of one BOV and compare it to the internal volume of the other.
You can also measure the internal diameter of the mushroom valves (or surface area excluding the spider) and compare it to that of the other.
Then you can compare the ratios of the various dimensions of one BOV vs. the other.
...and mushroom valves are important (if they are not the Draeger ones, I need evidence that they are as good or better).
What you cannot do is replace a tested BOV (or DSV) with an untested one, or use a BOV (or rebreather) for which you have no test data (meaning I want all relevant test data, and not the one the designer cherry picks which is good, without disclosing that which is bad).
The same applies to scrubbers and rebreathers overall, but no numbers, and I don't buy it and I don't dive it (personal choice), and where numbers are available, I take those into account.