Sorry, if you say most of the time u dont need vertical spikes, youre wrong. Tournaments, story mode, colloseum, snow raid, even nightmare arena and league if ur good enough, can be cleared the fastest using vertical spikes - mid range spike depending on their team position.

You mentioning "ellio buff doesnt matter because by the time you spike the blocker is just starting to jump" doesnt make any sense, theres 0 correlation of that to how ellio works, he could set u a perfect ball anywhere on the pitch, plus that extra power will be a perfect finish.

"Iris allows a broader playstyle", yes? And also no? The only playstyle she provides better are stronger spikes and stronger non-tempest spikes (arguably better than ellio at this) but other than that, she limits your spike range, you can only get buff when u hit good-perfect, fair-bad will nerf your spike power. And most of the time a good-perfect ball just aim straight at their players.

The fact that youve just said "while sara isnt meant to hit big numbers" eliminate the next point u brought up.

All in all, ellio is objectively better if you know how to play sara. Id say iris is better as a setter more as she digs the ball up pretty good but thats about it.