As I have one, and have formed my own opinions on the 1/3 inch thickness, I can't really go into details per the test team agreement...
But I can drop annoying little hints, so here goes:
The regulator is absolutely not just a "collector thing" and I can find justification for just about every design decision they made
I see what you are saying, as I'm sure the people at SR know more about functional knife design than I do <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/bowdown.gif" alt="" />. I guess what I am wondering however is, is the 1/3 thickness something that is sought out for functionality (and if so, what is that function?), or is it something that just happens to work well thanks to the overall execution of the Regulator? (Hope that makes sense)