The people that make it to the UK parliament got their education in debating chambers. This is taken seriously at the posh schools, e.g. Eton, and the posh universities, e.g. Oxford. It is not important in most state comprehensive schools or those universities that have access courses.
I was lucky enough to go to a comprehensive school where the debating chamber was important. The school does not have a debating chamber now. A few key teachers retired and momentum was lost. Strange how the must attend event no longer matters.
Those chambers are very different than these debate clubs within American highschools. Posh schools emphasize decorum and rationality. Eton is an argument between politician's at Speaker's Corner. US debate clubs are teenagers using twitter.
I'm not being hyperbolic. The skills to win at US debate are exactly the same skills one uses in a flame war: The goal is to lead the narrative by forcing your opponent to spend the majority of their time denying your arguments. Silence = weakness.
What goes missing from your analysis is how much of the round is won before it even starts. A team coming prepared with well-organized files, "answer-to" blocks, recently-cut politics blocks, etc. will destroy a team using rough-cut cards and analytics.
I was lucky enough to go to a comprehensive school where the debating chamber was important. The school does not have a debating chamber now. A few key teachers retired and momentum was lost. Strange how the must attend event no longer matters.