Yes I see your point Nick, in that the whole "uprated inlet or uprated cams" debate is a very old one, bottom line is bit of both is the answer, whether that be a mild inlet upgrade with some porting and then some fairly hot cams like 438, or whether it is a mild cam upgrade like 197 and then a fairly hot inlet like an RS2, or all out and go wild cams and bodies, mods work best when they complement each other
Cams and matched inlet gives higher peak torque but not a great spread, RS2 gives great spread of torque but not as high peak figure, personally on a box as wide as the clio one spread matters more to me than peak figures.
Bodies and cams are worth a mention too as they give a good spread and a good peak figure, but are a lot dearer and have other compromises, cost being a big one.
We had a cammed 172 and a RS2 172 at the same time, and both of us preferred driving the RS2 one by a mile, but its all down to personal preference.
Weird thing is that I never see people on here with RS2 cars slagging off cammed cars, they all seem to be happy with what they have and dont feel the need to **** off others, but its not true the opposite way around.
Funny one to me was Laine, he said an RS2's spread of torque was no big deal and spent ages on here slagging them and saying that cams could get better peak numbers (he was right of course on just the peak figures), and then he went and fitted some cams, then said he hated it on track as it was so peaky and is now turboing it instead.
I think people who do **** something off should at least say if they have ever driven one or not, cause trying to 2nd guess just from the internet often leaves people talking without any firsthand experience but others reading dont know those of us who have driven both, from those others who have driven only one or neither and still comment.