Acebird wrote; "Maybe I don't understand the problem.."
Could be, or could be an almost obssesive adherance to rule which denies
the "fatcomb" outcome whilst introducing other 'results', again dealt with by more 'rules'?
Run 7/8 or 9/10 in a brood chamber, placing #1 against the wall and spacing all others evenly with #7/#9 against the opposite wall.
The resulting honey band is "fat" on all frames between, as others note.
The problem then is found in mixing (manipulating) those frames with others in other colonies or differing box layouts, again as others have noted the frame/s have to be 'altered' to fit.
The frames do not sit easily in a way that maintains even beespace between the whole face of frames resulting in wonky combs and sometimes whole chunks of comb chewed out leaving significant holes in a frame.
Running 9/10 in all broodchambers I have managed there has never been a bother with "fatcomb" as generally it is the same across all broodchambers - they can be "skinnier" but never "fatter" as the layout is pretty much universal. Interestingly enough, if you put down a "fatcomb" frame adjacent a "normal" brood frame any honey band on the "skinny" frame is built out.
The bees don't make the "fatcomb" fatter.
Running 10/10 in supers produces a finished off capping which is most suitable for a mechanical uncapper (mine), however, having listened to those running 9/10 in supers I can understand the thinking "fatcomb" is best. The thing is, to a man/woman they all uncap manually - and often surgically remove "indentations" in the face - using up more time and effort in what is already the most tedious time consuming part of extraction (harvesting). If I could devise a jig to automagically remove rogue comb/burr comb/propolis on frame wood I would, eliminating another time consuming tedious part of extraction.
IF I can get an even comb built in the TBH - as per my earlier post - then I will have eliminated the tedious wonky comb uncapping predicted for TBH frames AND the frame wood clean.
More better it will the bees doing the work, not I... "win win" I reckon ;-)
Cheers.
Bill