pinnah,
Im going to make a couple of comments and that will be the end for me. You can have the last word if you wish.
First, you wrote, IMO, the hump and swedge make that a modified clip That must refer to the photo from MT_Pokt. The knife in the original post has no swedge. Does that change anything for you?
For the blade in question, the hump points towards a clip point, but the convex arc points to a drop point. Is one character more important than the other? Maybe we should say that the blade isnt a good example of either pattern but has characteristics of both. Do we need to force it into one category or another, or should we admit the world is full of variation?
I think your best of breed and my idealized vision are probably similar. As humans we categorize all sorts of things constantly and decisions are based on some vague standard. Sometimes thats useful and sometimes it causes problems.
Your best of breed usage is timely since the Westminster Show is almost ready to go. Judges know the breed standards forwards and backwards and have judged thousands of dogs, but, nevertheless, their decision is subjective. Its pretty safe to say that were two experienced people judging the same dogs each might pick a different individual as best.
That Loveless is a great drop point. If I were picking a favorite example, it might be one of the Al Mar ebony handled Custom Series by Gerber. Even when we are agreeing we can have slightly different ideas.
Finally, we all need to remember that we are only talking about knives. Surprisingly, there are a few things in the world that are more important, but at the moment I can't think of any.
Bert