okay, let's setting things one at a time. for now, i'm too lazy to go back to the HSDS text to analyze at the moment. let's just stick with H7G & GJ for now. But just for the note, yes i do think GJ was pulling out 100% against H7G...he specifically told himself he was going to put in full effort in order not to be biased against HYS or H7G. And as for when I say minimum...i do not mean minimum effort, but the minimum distance we know they CAN go.
first of all, i would like to apologize for making the car analogy and causing a misunderstanding. i was too intent on thinking max/min i forgot that cars were actually propelled by a source of power. Now, for a better analogy of what I think H7G's & GJ's fight more likely resembers (not completely...but better than racing cars). Think for example, of a baseball pitcher and a batter. The pitcher throws the ball at an extremely forceful pace. If there were no catcher or batter to stop the ball, the ball can go extremely far. However, since there is a catcher/batter, the distance the pitcher throws is only however far the home base is from the pitcher's mound. However, i highly doubt that distance is anywhere close to how far the pitcher can actually throw (of course i'm refering to pros...not little league). Or, you think think of soccer/footbal where one player CAN kick the ball from one end of the field to the other end (this is just hypothetical), but the ball may get stopped at midfield (or closer or farther) because a defender/goalie/goal net may stop the ball's velocity. Hence, take this to GJ/H7G...GJ is stopping H7G's palms at 10+ feet...does not mean H7G's palm wave will stop anywhere near there (it possible that the palm force really can go only 12 feet...but it also could go to 50+ feet or 500 feet
. The evidence is extremely up to your own personal interpretation and not useful as proof). Of course I'm not saying palm power doesn't weaken with distance (which it obviously should), but I don't think you can necessarily make the assumption that just b/c GJ jumped away 10 feet, H7G's palm power stops somewhere around there.
As for dealing with weapons, JY specificallys said that at a high level of martial arts, with or without a weapon usually doesn't matter. But my point of bringing out the GJ/H7G palm match was to show that Guo Jing CAN go closer to H7G...hence whether he goes away 10 feet or 20 feet or 50 feet really doesn't reflect on H7G's max distance because GJ can go in to a 0 feet distance and H7G's max obviously isn't 0 feet. I highly doubt H7G was allowing GJ to come closer to him for a palm match because he pull all out (at least initially) on the last stance.
If, however, it was really H7G's choice to have a palm match with GJ, then it would mean that H7G had a control over how far his palm goes, independent of how much power he inputs, then it further means you cannot say H7G's max is around 10+ feet when he goes some 70-80%.