Not sure it’s a legitimate debate tactic in a discussion about the general masses to use Keith Elwin as the person to prove a point 
Edit: I realize we are talking about players with byes, but even then I think it is agreed Keith is quite the exception.
I’m not even sure Keith is a good example. His first finals round was the quarterfinals, and it came down to his final ball on Solar Ride. He has a perfect plunge, which includes help from the pop bumpers, and advances by one point. If that plunge goes wrong, he could instead be the poster child of coming in cold after byes.
(To reiterate, for me, it’s not about “coming in cold”, it’s about coming into a match where your opponents have already played the machines you’re about to play…in an event whose format has otherwise explicitly prohibited players from getting any time on games before they have to play them).
Keith has had several close calls in first or second rounds at Pinburgh and PAPA over the years [go back and look], yet managed to extricate himself and crush onward.
I certainly appreciated and enjoyed the practice time I got in 2017 to practice a few of the pins after my double-bye. It gave me insight into a few key kickouts/feeds that helped me pick which bank I wanted. I wish there was an effective way to re-institute the practice time like 2017 (and earlier) where no-bye and single-bye all practiced machines prior to round one, and the four double-bye players got a short practice round after round 2.
But alas, Pinburgh finals day is already a long day (see other people’s complaints about not having a break between rounds), and I doubt it will come back. Perhaps if Finals day clawed back the time lost due to “tilt bob waiting” by installing ear plugs, then it might be a possibility?
Players can wait 60 seconds regardless of a tilt or not. For a tilt you going to trust something you cant see.
It takes some players 60 seconds to find the right song to play their ball with.