@Racing roadkill can you help us with a reference to the scale of improvement in the development of tolerance of lateral stress in chains. I have had a cursory look, sparked by your observation but found little of relevance? The width of blocks/cassettes has increased over the implied period so that will have increased the cross-chain angles, and chains have been forced to narrow. Will that have had a beneficial effect on tolerance of lateral stress or otherwise, or neither (neutral)?
Don't you think that even 'virtually' that's stretching it a bit, as I assume you don't mean in a longitudinal axis (when any chain can in reality let alone virtually be bent back either way 'on themselves' (to touch the adjacent link))?