Well on this question, will be very dificult to answer.
Novarossi very popular brand and to stay on the top, they have to make improovments preety often or they will loos their positions.
I am sure you saw JP's flying and screaming, but also I am sure you saw ( I saw many times) when JP was slow as HPI.
On other hand, I will not sugest to compare team engines to regular poduction engines. Ths is why they are team egines-drivers will show you how fast they are, but pretty often it is driver, not an engine.
Bary Bekker won Speed Line in Las Vegas on Sirio ( I belive this info was correct in other tread) and he was running against Newest team X12 JP ( Mike Swager) and other guys who used newest engines.
So who can answer you this question?
I personaly don't belive in Microcasting, but I might be wrong.
We never were able to get out of powder Alloy results ( not in performance , not in life)which we got from our casting pistons. And it was spent years of trials.
BTW, I am changing conrods after at list 3 gallons of fuel first time