Both Snyder and Tribe overthink it

[binions]

Here's the best way to compare tournament structures:

How long does it take the big blind to equal the starting chips?

That's pretty much it. Double the time for an online tourney to compare it to live. Add 10% to live tourneys that use shuffle machines vs. those that don't.

The longer it takes, the better the structure. Players paying bigger buy ins deserve more time before BB = SC.

My preferences include starting with at least 200xBB and having at least 3 levels where the average stack is greater than 100xBB.