You can have a feather weight literbike........it's just going to cost you an arm and a leg. Carbon fiber ain't cheap and using the lightest metals means that your 12k literbike just grew into a 40,000 dollar literbike. Just look at the MV Agusta F4CC, ducati desmosedici rr etc all that weight savings comes at a significant cost.But better technology should mean that it is stronger & *lighter* so that more horsepower is not wasted in trying to accelerate a heavier bike. Else you might as well just drive a truck with a steel cage frame and a 1500HP motor.
And you seem to be stuck on them posting lap times when you stated yourself that various factors contribute to lap times. Any logical sportbike rider knows the latest bikes aren't leaps and bounds above the yesteryear's models, but incrementally better in small ways here and there that all add up in the end. A slipper clutch, Big piston fork etc give the rider more confidence in what the machine is doing while also contributing to slightly faster times. Seems like you want the journalist to justify something you already knew.
Today's machines in general are miles away from machines of only 20 years ago. Just enjoy them for what they are. Affordable race ready bikes that anybody can own. Whether that's good or bad is a whole other beast.