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'Seat of the pants' aka 'butt dyno' readings are notoriously inaccurate.
Any change in power delivery or sound is perceived as 'more power' by the guy who spent the money and/or did the labor. Real changes should be verified using controlled experiments. Corrected dyno, 0-60 times, unbiased tester, etc...
As for a minor (5 hp?) gain, your actual peak power can vary that much or more with the change in the weather between breakfast and lunch. It is very difficult to measure changes that small with an instrument as unreliable as the butt dyno.
IMO, reducing air velocity through the intake by hogging it out is rarely a good idea, unless you are correcting a known deficiency.
Polishing a surface to increase airflow has been pretty thoroughly debunked over the years, specifically for intake ports. Pretty sure the same physics apply in the intake tract.
But hey, it's fun to work on your truck and learn on your own, so props for that!
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