So this is an exception to the rule. A minority case, else the channelers in the books wouldn't use the rule in the first place. It is never suggested that Egwene suffers from such a "secondary weave" problem. So her 8 foot gateway is a reliable indicator of her strength.

And when Egwene/Siuan says that most Aes Sedai are not strong enough to weave a gateway large enough to walk through, they are not referring to secondary weave problems, they are referring to strength.

The point is, in GENERAL, gateway size is correlated sufficiently to strength that the channelers THEMSELVES use it as an indication of comparative strength. It is not I who dreamed this correlation up out of nowhere. The channelers themselves use it as a rule.

But even more importantly, this is not the central pillar of my argument. It is merely one of MANY corrobarating bits of evidence. In other words, there is a general rule that stronger channelers make larger gateways. So if my model places various channelers in various positions, it is greatly boosted by the fact that these positions also happen to conform to the gateway/strength rule.

But I do not place a modern Aes Sedai at 25 effective strength based on her gateway size. No, I place her there because she is half as strong as Egwene. And I place Ewgene at 50, because Egwene plus Aviendha are manhandled contemptuously by Lanfear, and Egwene plus Elayne are handled like kittens by a underdeveloped Rand, and Egwene herself says that she plus two Moiraine strength channelers would barely match a male Forsaken.

Then, when the gateway rule ALSO confirms these placings, you know you are right in the majority of cases.

It is the WEIGHT of evidence, not one single item, that puts Egwene at 50.

Could you provide me with one solid piece of evidence that places Egwene at 80% of Lanfear's strength?