This seems like yet another example of people not understanding what we are actually doing.

No, I thought it was the former, but it had me questioning a bit. Technically the scenario of paying more for bigger shares would not be logical as the guy/gal/dog who submits the winning share would get a larger percentage of the proverbial pie.
I don't understand every nuance, my specialty is hacking and fixing the mining hardware. That I'm good at :-)