Sauce actually changes how your tongue reads the meat, since sweet and acid cut through fat in a way rub alone can't. That judge might be right about hiding bad smoke, but a light glaze on the back end isn't hiding anything, it's building layers. Ever tried the same bite with and without sauce side by side?

Always felt the wrench was overkill but that zero seep sold me too.

My old shop foreman at a place in Wichita did the same thing with valve cover gaskets, kept his wrench at 65 inch pounds instead of the 80 max and never had a weeping issue again. The spread usually looks wide because the top number is for clean dry threads and the low end is what you use once there is any oil or anti seize on there, which is most real world jobs. For oil pan bolts I just go a hair under the middle and snug them in a cross pattern twice, been working fine for years.