Inflated Scores

[i love to skate]

What I can't tell from the videos is how they compare with each other and with the other top skaters in terms of power, speed, absolute ice coverage.

The actual Skating Skills marks may vary from performance to performance depending on execution. Same for the other components. And Interpretation especially would be more subject to judges' (or fans') subjective impressions.

I can't speak for Abbott as I don't watch him that often but as for Patrick his ice coverage is one of the best. In his straight line he not only goes end to end, he also covers the width of the ice. He seems to build up speed fairly easily - Kurt has said that even he has no idea how he picks up his speed.

Interpretation is subjective as you said but I feel as if Chan should be way ahead in this area when you compare him to a skater like, Plushenko. In Plushenko's short program, it doesn't even seem like he is listening to his own music as he is skating to a different tempo.