I'm going to ramble a bit, please be patient

Two Points:

First: Cupping is a relatively poorly controlled comparison of coffees, since cups are not poured, nor crusts broken, at the same time. However, the results tend to be fairly repeatable. As I've done more and more cupping, I've gone to coarser grinds, lower brewing temperatures, and longer steeping times as the best way of overcoming these imperfections. Since the water is cooling off, time differences in breaking the crust are less likely to be a problem. Also, the long steep time tends to erase differences in initial temperature. A five liter Zoji takes care of keeping the all the water I pour at the same temperature (whatever it is). The end effect of all this is slightly under-extracted coffee with fairly clear taste and not much bitterness. The difference between a four and six minute brew time, if there are a lot of crusts to break, is negligible.

Second: The same coffee done as open bowl cupping tastes better than French Press using identical grinding and steep times. The reason is simple. The act of pressing down on a French Press squeezes the grinds and releases over-extracted, bitter flavors. The rule is the less the grinds are disturbed, the better the cup.

What does this mean for someone wanting to reinvent single cup brewing?

The finer you grind, the faster you extract, the more you man handle the grinds, the more precise you have to be to get a halfway decent extraction. This is why espresso, even at its most precise, remains so variable. That is why Clover brews were almost invariably muddy and uninspired.

So my suggestion is to test your new methods for a "speed limit," the point at which faster brewing yields unreliable, uninspired cups. Every increase in precision could potentially increase the brewing speed, but each such speed up requires better grinders, better temperature control, better timing, and better grind handling. Otherwise you just end up with overrated mud cups.