[ymu]

Nice post, but I don't see the relationship to the argument in the OP. It starts off hypothesising out known problems with ICM and then acknowledges that these ignored factors make a difference.

I'm really struggling to see how the OP doesn't boil down to "push loose, call tight (and be careful with your EV calcs when you stand to lose a lot of $ if you get it wrong)". If it does boil down to this, I think there are more accurate ways to deal with the (being careful with EV calcs) bit than adding an arbitrary amount to the minimum edge when the actual effect on $EV varies hugely depending on the situation.