[Squidward]

Agree totally. I've wondered "WHY THIS? but "NOT THAT?"

Basic principles of heat transfer are immutable.

More flow on any side of the equation is always better. Period.
More surface area for heat transfer is always better.
You can overcome a deficiency in one attribute by engineering in an excess of another.

If you have a small surface area radiator, you better have a lot of airflow thru that radiator to bring down the radiator outlet temp as much as possible. That's what I am dealing with now.

It's funny how first gens have all sorts of baffles to direct air, yet 2nd gens and A bodies had little of that other than a fan shroud. It tells us that the design engineers knew there was a serious constraint related to that platform. 1st Gen radiators are so comparatively tiny. Tiny radiator means that airflow capable of cooling a 2nd Gen is not enough to crutch a 1st gen.