Completely and 100% relevant. It's five times as relevant for every other horse other than the leader. Forget Menangle spoon feeding it, but rather than just saying a horse came 3 wide from about 20m back in a 30 qtr and just saying it was a tough effort, having the ability to say that horse went 28.2 is so much more valuable.
The big thing here is recognition that 200m intervals are much more important than 400m intervals. I go back to the above example of that horse going a 27.3. A 14.1 and 14.1 200m will have a different impact on the horse to a 13 and 15.2 which will have a different impact to a 15.2 and 13.