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You are correct Tedious. The motor can be tucked back down, aka trimmed in at speed, it just could not be trimmed out. And while I was told the triggering RPM was 3000 RPM, I only came across the limiting trim height up around 4500-5000 RPM. Quite likely, this is because the sweet trim spot for speeds below that 45-5000 was also below the set trim limit.

I expect this trim limiter was introduced by Mercury to protect water cooling and ensure pickups are covered at higher speeds. One could certainly argue, and my experience mirrors this, that trimming down too low at higher speeds is much more dangerous for the boat and driver than blowing out. So, engine damage protection, not necessarily liability to operator protection.

When I am able to get out this spring, I'll run tests to determine:
A. If the re-established "factory trim limit" is higher than, and thus effective for high speed runs.
B. If I can find the RPM at which the limiter kicks in by trimming out inordinantly high at lower speeds.
C. Check if engine auto-lowers from high trim to trim limit level at some RPM.

Unrelated, but creeping into this article, I think this engine would be an excellent selection for both the original 21 foot Outrages and an 80s 20 foot Outrage.