I fully take all your (excellent) points about the differences between the erg and the boat, but I was really talking about power measurement at the flywheel.

One point of yours though:

While everyone obsesses over watts, that's not the whole picture. To move a boat (virtual or real) you need work, not power

You are correct, but just for one stroke. The thing slowing down a boat or spinning flywheel is drag, which is a power dissipator. => Generating more power means you overcome more drag == go faster.

cf. when you take the rate up by reducing the time on the recovery while keeping work/stroke the same. Your speed increases as your rate of (the same) work increases.

edit: Also, forgot to mention this

Concept sells "Sliders" for the C2 ergs that you can use for a single erg but also to link together multiple ergs to a crew. If you haven't tried this, I can highly recommend this as it makes it much more realistic and also a lot more challenging.

I made my own! https://youtu.be/0BvX8leh1_c