Annyway, I just find all of this fascinating because as thick as the rule books are that USFS likes to write, I never feel like they answer my more nit picky questions
I feel that way too. It seems like most of their rules aren't about skating - they are about how to stay eligible to compete, and what you might owe USFS[A] money for.
In what follows, remember that I'm not all that knowledgeable. This is just what I have (tried to ) figure out, perhaps incorrectly.
The USFS[A] often lets skating standards be set by the
ISU, of which the USFS[A] is a member organization (though some USFS[A] rules contradict and presumably over-ride ISU rules within the USFS[A]). So when USFS[A] doesn't have a standard, many people look at iSU standards. ISU also has a bunch of videos that explain a lot about aesthetic standards followed by the skating community. If you looked at those videos, I wouldn't be surprised if one of them discusses this issue.
In the United States, a lot of standards are unofficially set by classes offered by the
PSA. In particular, AFAICT, PSA people try to interpret the ambiguous rules, then get feedback from people in the USFS[A] rules committee, revise accordingly, and repeat the process until the rules committee doesn't have too many objections. But PSA mostly exists to support coaches, so most PSA documents are not available to skaters who aren't also coaches.
Some of the standards that are set by the USFS[A] and ISU are in documents aimed at judges (e.g., marking sheets, scale of values, etc., and are not in written rules. And some are in "communications" that come out between editions of the rules.
What it boils down to is that if you want a sport with clear, easy to find rules, look elsewhere.