Roguespeycaster,
Usuing the static weight test you describe only provides one measurement of the rod's action, that of how much it flexes with the amount of static (non-moving) weight you are applying to the blank. It does not measure recovery rate of the rod after it has been bent under load and released from that load. Nor does it measure how the blank responds to an active load (i.e. casting and changing line loads due to increases or decrease of belly length being cast) applied to the blank. Also, it does not tell anything about whether the rod has noticeable sine nodes or multiple bounces of the rod tip after the load is applied and then released. Likewise, it tells one nothing of how the rod responds to the load generated by the various stops (from very abrupt to extended or drifted stop) at the end of the power stroke.
The static test also tells you very little about how the rod flexes etc. with the line size (line weight in grains) the rod was designed to cast. For instance, if I take a 3oz weight and see how it flexes my 16' 11 wt rod and then use the same 3oz. weight to see how it flexes my 15' 10 wt rod there will be noticeable differences in how far each rod flexes down the blank with that weight. Then if I take the same 3oz weight and see how it flexes my 13' 8 wt there will be even more of the rod flexed with that weight. But what does this really tell me about the rods? Only that they bend (or flex) differently from the same weight, something I would expect when comparing an 11 wt with an 8 wt. And I submit that because of this, the static test provides very little of the information on how the rod performs and that it is also not very accurate way to compare rods unless all are the same length and designed for the same line.
All of the other aspects I mentioned are very important parts of a rod's design, even if they are not detected at all through the use of your static test.
You are correct, there is no standard by which rod action can be objectively compared. I would submit that it would take a measurement of static load deflection (your flex profile to a given weight), a recovery rate measure, a measure of rod tip defection past rest position after the casting load is released and the rod moves through rest position, how many oscilations it takes for the rod tip to completely return to rest, and how the rod flex changes under dynamic load in order to be able to objectively compare one rod with another of the same line designation.
