Yep, me too Barry. I want M7 to go something like this: 23:00, 16:30, 9:30, 12:30, 16:45. So far pretty much no one has done that. Closest I can think of are Dudamel, Boulez, de Waart, and Vänskä, though none of them are quite fast enough in the finale for my taste. Of those four, I think Dudamel has the best finale. In fact, I've really been getting into that recording lately. People seem to have forgotten about it.
And I think I generally agree with your theory on Mahler's tempo indications. He himself conducted pieces differently night to night; everything was always 'in the moment' with him, and it's certainly reflected in the music. I think his scores' attentiveness to phrasing, articulation, balances, and relative dynamics stems from wanting to make the conductor's lives easier as to how the music ought to sound, but how it felt was probably supposed to be different every night at the concert hall.
