One Joyful Day, this is the read I wanted. You found the real bug: the ladder inverts at the top. Once the clock drops below a block fall time, the short clock stops being hard, so run 9 onward gets easier, not harder. Stacking the paddle past screen width plus one-time shields turns the last runs into a non-game. That is on me, not on you.
What I am changing: the ladder keeps tightening past run 10 instead of flooring at 5s, the paddle gets a hard cap, and the block shrink floor goes away so the end is never free. And you are right that WIDER reads as a downgrade in a game where you dodge. Thanks for the run count. 70 is a number I can act on.