I've seen plenty of full sized timber milled on an up & down - it is the norm - as is hewing being limited to long sticks - Mills were often some of the first buildings built in any town...
I think in this case it was simply that hewing tiny stock that won't hold still, is a bummer.
Can't answer the archive question - I'm not a made member. but as I understand it the surveys have not been digitized. I'm guessing, but there is probably not enough of them to show any emerging pattern - and there are huge regional variations in framing, usually driven by settlement pattern.
"We build too many walls and not enough bridges" - Isaac Newton
