The scores are really inflated! And don't look at my signature! Or my avatar. This has nothing to do with me being, ahm, patriotic! I watched it (thanks to Hsuhs and the nice Chinese TV) - and I think the the judges like Takahashi a bit too much. And I love Takahashi - but he wasn't 4 points better than at the GPF.
As much as I enjoy Buttle and his style - I think the inflation started with him, they gave him so much points - then Lysacek came along and only botched up his last spin, so they had to give the lead to Lysacek, but Lysacek already had the same amount of points Takahashi got at the GPF in the SP - and it would have been funny if Takahashi had beaten Lysacek at the GPF in the SP by four points (and Lysacek's only mistake there was the 4T-3T Combo with -GOE, the Quad that Takahashi didn't even have in his program) so they somehow gave Takahashi so much GOE that he still won the SP by quite a margin.
Someone who was really cheated in my opinion was Chengjiang Li. Carriere was scratchy, his spins are way better, but I don't think he has much better interpretation or choreography. His footwork looks harder but he is not into it - it looks like "here I have to throw my right arm into the air - now I have to turn my left foot and lean over my right hip etc." Chengjiang Li is no artist on ice, but I prefer a rather simple choreography with sound technique and moves that look "convincing" over a guy who does not seem to know why he has to do this movement at this point of the music.
@Tinymavy - his jumps were really ok tonight, he will never have the quality some other guys have on their jumps, but I think the jumps deserved between +0-1,0 GOE.