Ill take torque over revs anyday.
My neighbor had a tree service out to take down a large oak and I went over to check things out.
The ground man had a stihl 260?(280?) this saw sounded nice from a distance, but up close it was obnoxious, thing reved out so high only dogs could hear it.
And while it was making a slew of chips, there wasnt much to them. Sounded for all the world to be cutting up a storm, but the time to go through a 10" section was nothing spectacular.
They pulled out a big homey for the trunk and larger work and it handled these 20-28" at about the same speed.
I think where the newer saws shine is in the weight. Im 260lbs so a few lbs to me isint as much as it could be for others and the lighter higher reving saws definatly give up torque in deferance to higher revs and lighter weight .