Thanks for the explanation.
To be honest what you have written ties in exactly with how I ride on the road. I’ve SRAM on my main road bike and I never really use the 46-10 other than when already going pretty fast. I am normally in the 80rpm average on the road (unless doing a particularly hilly/climbing route).
But this is where I don’t find Zwift quite so realistic - I absolutely have to put out more effort to ride in a group at 40km/h on Zwift than I do on the road. And of course you can’t coast either. Hence Zwift is always a much more intense ride, and why I only tend to do an hour on it whereas in real world I pretty much always ride about 3hr (at least 2, usually closer to 4hr total). I figured that’s fine for the purpose of getting quick training rides in over winter, and the events keep me motivated as competitiveness kicks in, as opposed to when I used Trainer Road which was instructive but I struggled more with motivation.
So basically you reckon I should ride in probably the 50-30 and try hit about 85rpm?