I agree with your comments.
With the 308 win I used 165 grain, 30-06 150 & 165. 300 wm and 300 wsm 180 Partition and Accubond.
When I bought my 7rm I started with the 139 with its velocity gain then switched to 154 primarily for deer. I would like to find a heavier option for the bc gain of some of the newer bullets to shoot at longer range targets. If elk is on the menu Partition and Accubonds would be my first choices.
I shoot mostly heavy tipped target bullets, so the 162 eld-ms are my go to now that I've burned up my supply of 162A-max.
Ive not killed anything besides goats with the ELD-Ms, but I've shot a pile of game up to 1k+lb feral bulls with those 162s in both my 7mag, and 7STWs.
I started out with 139s also, then went to 120s, then to 154, and 162/168s.....burned out the barrel on my A-bolt with the A-maxs.
IMO for light game, the 120s are emphatic killers. You just need to get them INTO the boiler room. The 139s give you a little more penetration but act similarly.
The 154+ start to become do all bullets. They have enough mass that you can shoot soft bullets and expect exit wounds on most lighter game and presentations, while penetrating plenty far enough for behind the shoulder shots on even very large game.
If hunting for hard to penetrate or dangerous critters id switch to a Partition or Mono, but for nearly anything else im comfortable shooting 160 class cup n cores. If im unsure of the animal Id upgrade to bondeds or a partition as well.
All that being said, I also agree if your going to primarily shoot bullets lighter than 160gr might as well step down in capacity.
equally if your dead set on going above that, might want to step up on capacity. I used 175s for a while in my STW because I was afraid it would blow up the 162s at 3200.....It didn't, and everything I hit with them dropped on the spot. The 175s were clocking right at 3000 and didn't open up as quick, but also didn't provide any advantage, even on feral cows.